Using strcmp, char variable changes value?

Ah, Thanks Elysia. What did I do wrong now? Won't go through second while loop...

Code:

---

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>

int main (void)
{
        char a[21];
        char b[50];
        char c[99];
        int d;
        int e;
        int f;
        FILE *syns;
        FILE *thes;
        FILE *alp;
        syns = fopen ( "syns.txt", "r");
        thes = fopen ( "thes", "r");
        alp = fopen ( "alp.txt", "w");
        printf("How many synonyms?\n");
        scanf("&#37;d",&e);
        fseek( syns, 0L, SEEK_SET );
        while(1==fscanf(syns,"%20s",a)) /*While there are words, take a word from the list*/
        {
                fseek( thes, 0L, SEEK_SET);/*go to beginning of thesaurus*/
                while((1==fscanf(thes,"%49s",b))&&(f==0)) /*While there are words in thesaurus, take one and...*/
                {
                        if (strcmp(a,b)==0) /*...Compare it to the word from the list, if they are the same*/
                        {
                                fprintf(alp,"%s- ",a);/*Print the word*/
                                for(d=0;d<=e;d++)/*Pick amount of synonyms*/
                                {
                                        fscanf(thes,"%98s",c); /*take current word*/
                                        fprintf(alp,"%s, ",c);/*print it*/
                                }
                                fprintf(alp,"\n");/*Goto a newline when finished*/
                                f=1;
                        }
                }
        }
        return (0);
}

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Indent properly, please. And don't do { something, instead do { (new line) something.
Your loops are a mess to read. And rename your variables to better names and stop using fscanf(..., "%s", ...)! Read my signature for information. It's unsafe.

I use Dev C++, It doesn't like indenting properly. Suggestions on a better IDE? Also, where do I not have a curly-bracket newline?

For the last question: you fixed it.
Now the code is much easier to read.
And Dev-C++ should be able to handle it properly. Many use that and if it didn't indent properly it would be a very poor IDE indeed.
Let's see if I can find errors in that code.

Ok, I forgot to do that. Changed "%s" to match the sizes.

a, b, c, d, e, f are very very poor variables names. I had to rename them to make sense of your code.
Anyway, I found this:

Code:

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for(d=0;d<=e;d++)/*Pick amount of synonyms*/

---

You probably to start at 1 since otherwise it will pick the number of synonyms entered + 1 (since you go from 0 to the number entered, not 1).

Your loop is also confusing:

Code:

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while((1==fscanf(thes,"%49s",b))&&(f==0)) /*While there are words in thesaurus, take one and...*/

---

If fscanf fails, you probably tried to read beyond the end of file, so why f==0?
Besides that, f is set to 1 if a match is found, so if a match is found and it reaches the end of the file... it won't stop looping because you never set f to 0 again. So get rid of it unless you have a good reason for it to be there.

Better? EDIT: Runs fine now... Thanks for all your help!

Code:

---

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>

int main (void)
{
        char word[21];
        char wordtocheck[50];
        char synonym[99];
        int picksyns;
        int howmanysyns;
        int resultscheck;
    FILE *syns;
    FILE *thes;
    FILE *alp;
    syns = fopen ( "syns.txt", "r");
    thes = fopen ( "thes", "r");
    alp = fopen ( "alp.txt", "w");
    printf("How many synonyms?\n");
    scanf("&#37;d",&howmanysyns);
    fseek( syns, 0L, SEEK_SET );
    while(1==fscanf(syns,"%20s",word)) /*While there are words, take a word from the list*/
    {
    resultscheck=0;
    fseek( thes, 0L, SEEK_SET);/*go to beginning of thesaurus*/
    while((1==fscanf(thes,"%49s",wordtocheck))&&(resultscheck==0)) /*While there are words in thesaurus, take one and...*/
    {
                                      if (strcmp(word,wordtocheck)==0) /*...Compare it to the word from the list, if they are the same*/
                                      {
                                              fprintf(alp,"%s- ",word);/*Print the word*/
                                              for(picksyns=1;picksyns<=howmanysyns;picksyns++)/*Pick amount of synonyms*/
                                              {
                                                                        fscanf(thes,"%98s",synonym); /*take current word*/
                                                                        fprintf(alp,"%s, ",synonym);/*print it*/
                                              }
                                              fprintf(alp,"\n");/*Goto a newline when finished*/
                                              resultscheck=1;
                                      }
    }
    }
return (0);
}

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When you open a file your need to check that everything went well and that the program can continue.

Code:

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syns = fopen ( "syns.txt", "r");
if ( syns == NULL )
{
    <some kind of error here.>
    <some form of dealing with the problem here> 
}

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Thanks! But how should I handle it?

Since it's a fixed filename, you can't do anything except exit the program.
If the filename were a command line parameter, you could exit with a message reminding the user of the usage of the program.
If the filename was read in at some prompt within your program, you could ask again.