sounds ironic i guess, but my problem is that in my program i have a menu, and when you type in a letter that is not a menu option it prints an error saying you entered an invlid choice. but if you enter multiple characters.. something like tsdf and press enter it will repeat the error message 4 times. i want it to print one error message for no matter how many characters you type in. My menu choice is of type char. so i know why it's doing, it just runs the loop and enters the next character automatically.. but how can i get it do not do it? or to maybe fit multiple characters into that one char variable. People tell me to use an array(whiche i haven't learned about in class). do something like char choice[a big number]; and that will do it.. but i try it and well when the program runs no matter what i type in, even if it's a correct menu option, it prints the error message!!.. only once... but what's the use if i can't access the rest of the program that way.. anyone have a clue? my menu is set up with a bunch of if and else if statements. i know switch is better. but it's too late. it's for a class and it must be able to do this. How can i correct this?