sscanf query

[Leonix]

if I have a string say 12345.67123456 and I want to break it into 2 seperate character arrays of 12345.67 and 123456 how should I go about it I was trying:


sscanf( str, "%9s%7s", first, second );

but this gives me

12345.6712345
and
123456

please could you let me know where I am going wrong.

[knutso]

Try %9.9s%7s

[Leonix]

Cheers will do.
But could you just please explain why as I don't just want to make it work I want to understand why for the future.

Thanks

Taz

[Leonix]

I have just tried this and it gives me nonesense characters.

[knutso]

Just a suggestion.
When printing characters, %9.3s will print a string with maximum 9 characters, but minimum 3 characters.
I set different numbers just to separate their meaning

[Dave_Sinkula]

[edit]Wrong answer previously, as noted by your reply.

Adding this one in its place.

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void)
{
   const char text[] = "12345.67123456";
   char first [ 9 ], second [ 7 ];
   if ( sscanf(text, "%8s%6s", first, second) == 2 )
   {
      printf("first = \"%s\", second = \"%s\"\n", first, second);
   }
   return 0;
}

/* my output
first = "12345.67", second = "123456"
*/

It seems to me the same as your original except the added context.

[Leonix]

That isn't what I am trying to do I want 123456.78 to be first and 123456 to be second

[itsme86]

That isn't what I am trying to do I want 123456.78 to be first and 123456 to be second

You don't even have an 8 in your string...

[Leonix]

oh yes well I will probably struggle with that one then. well spotted.
what I meant was :
first = "12345.67"
second = "123456"

as 2 seperate strings.

[Leonix]

ok this is the function in question

void validateC( char *tempstring )
{
	int loop;
	char CreditLimit[9], CustomerBalance[7];
	char *string_ptr = &tempstring[6];
	printf("\n\nValidation of C ");
	sscanf( tempstring, "%c%5s", &Record.Cre.RecordType, &Record.Cre.CustomerCode);
	for( loop = 0; loop < 20; loop++ )
	{
		Record.Cre.CustomerName[loop] = *string_ptr++;
	}
	for( loop = 0; loop < 60; loop++ )
	{
		Record.Cre.CustomerAddress[loop] = *string_ptr++;
	}
	sscanf( string_ptr, "%9s%7s", &CustomerBalance, &CreditLimit );
	printf("\n%c\n%5s\n%20s\n%60s\n%9s\n%7s", Record.Cre.RecordType, Record.Cre.CustomerCode,
									  Record.Cre.CustomerName, Record.Cre.CustomerAddress,
									  CustomerBalance, CreditLimit);
}

where the tempstring passed to it is :
c12345andrew Anderson 100 saint Road; Lower heaton; Blackpool; Bp3 4JZ 123456.780010000

but I get
123456.780010000 for my CustomerBalance
and then
0010000 for my CreditLimit

I have tried to work it out myself as i don't expect you guys to do the work for me but I don't know where I am going wrong.

by the wat the reason I first set it to a string is because it could also hold letters. ie "unknown" could be sent in this field.

Thanx in advance

Taz

[quzah]

Are we just supposed to guess what Record contains? How about Record.Cre? That too? We can't very well debug your code if you insist on giving incomplete information.

Also, why don't you just use sscanf properly, and scrap your array-filling-loops all together?

Quzah.

[Dave Evans]

Well, if you want to do this with sscanf(), using strings, you pretty much have to know two things:

1. How sscanf() works.
2. How the input data are arranged in the input string.

You can teach yourself a lot of things by using printf() right after each application of sscanf():

sscanf( tempstring, "%c%5s", &Record.Cre.RecordType, &Record.Cre.CustomerCode);
printf(""\n\nRecordType = %d, CustomerCode: <%s>\n\n", 
Record.Cre.RecordType,Record.Cre.RecordType);

Do it after each sscanf(), to see what' really happening.

Oh, by the way, consider this

	for( loop = 0; loop < 20; loop++ )
	{
		Record.Cre.CustomerName[loop] = *string_ptr++;
	}

What do you get with

  printf("CustomerName: <%s>\n", Record.Cre.CustomerName);

Unless the array was initialized to all zero, you should put

Record.Cre.CustomerName[20] = '\0';

Even if it had been initialized to 0, I would always put it here, in case someone decides to change the initialization at some later time.

Does any of this give you anything more to work with? Wouldn't you really rather do it yourself? This stuff is kind of fun when it works.

Dave

[Leonix]

I didn't include what Record and Record.cre hold as they work fine I just want to know where I am going wrong with regard to CustomerBalance and Creditlimit. which isn't part of the Record structure

sscanf( string_ptr, "%9s%7s", &CustomerBalance, &CreditLimit );

when I print the other fields they all show what they should. so my question only relates to the sscanf() line really.

Hope this helps you help me.

[Salem]

I think you're much better off using say strncpy() to copy specific bits of the string which can be then passed to simpler sscanf() calls, rather than trying to do it all in one massively complex sscanf call.

Eg

char temp[10];
strncpy( temp, buff, 9 ); temp[9] = '\0';
sscanf( temp, "%f", &myfloat );

[quzah]

I didn't include what Record and Record.cre hold as they work fine I just want to know where I am going wrong with regard to CustomerBalance and Creditlimit. which isn't part of the Record structure

sscanf( string_ptr, "%9s%7s", &CustomerBalance, &CreditLimit );

when I print the other fields they all show what they should. so my question only relates to the sscanf() line really.

Hope this helps you help me.

Actually, it doesn't. It's as I stated in my reply: Just because you know "it works right", doesn't mean I know it does. You say you're having problems with sscanf "not working", and yet, you include sscanf calls that I can only guess at.

How am I supposed to know if those calls are right? The fact is, I can't. Not with the information provided. Therefore, it's rather hard for me to debug your program, since you aren't providing enough information.

Quzah.