Thread: Teaching myself C, quick inquiry

Before heading into computer science next year, I felt it would be advantageous to get a head start on C programming. So I have been using this sites tutorial, and while reading through I just had a quick question.

This is copied from Tutorial #9 (please ignore comments)

Code:

#include <stdio.h>    /* stdin, printf, and fgets */
#include <string.h>   /* for all the new-fangled string functions */

/* this function is designed to remove the newline from the end of a string
entered using fgets.  Note that since we make this into its own function, we
could easily choose a better technique for removing the newline.  Aren't
functions great? */
void strip_newline( char *str, int size )
{
    int i;

    /* remove the null terminator */
    for (  i = 0; i < size; ++i )
    {
        if ( str[i] == '\n' )
        {
            str[i] = '\0';

            /* we're done, so just exit the function by returning */
            return;   
        }
    }
    /* if we get all the way to here, there must not have been a newline! */
}

int main()
{
    char name[50];
    char lastname[50];
    char fullname[100]; /* Big enough to hold both name and lastname */

    printf( "Please enter your name: " );
    fgets( name, 50, stdin );

    /* see definition above */
    strip_newline( name, 50 );

    /* strcmp returns zero when the two strings are equal */
    if ( strcmp ( name, "Alex" ) == 0 ) 
    {
        printf( "That's my name too.\n" );
    }
    else                                     
    {
        printf( "That's not my name.\n" );
    }
    // Find the length of your name
    printf( "Your name is %d letters long", strlen ( name ) );
    printf( "Enter your last name: " );
    fgets( lastname, 50, stdin );
    strip_newline( lastname, 50 );
    fullname[0] = '\0';            
    /* strcat will look for the \0 and add the second string starting at
       that location */
    strcat( fullname, name );     /* Copy name into full name */
    strcat( fullname, " " );      /* Separate the names by a space */
    strcat( fullname, lastname ); /* Copy lastname onto the end of fullname */
    printf( "Your full name is %s\n",fullname );

    getchar();

    return 0;
}

I see that the program was written with string variables of 50, which clearly covers any name. However...I was wondering how you would modify it so that if string only contained, lets say 10 characters, and if the user imputed more than 10, and error would come up saying "The name is too long"? (just the code that would be needed)

Awesome thankyou very much Ill have to test this out