the code from my book doesn't work!!

hi I'm reading a book called the c programming language second edition by dennis ritchie and one of the source codes in section 1.5.4 doesn't work properly.

here's the code:

Code:

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#include <stdio.h>

#define IN 1    /* inside a word */
#define OUT 0  /* outside a word */

/* count lines, words, and characters in input */
main()
{
    int c, nl, nw, nc ,state;

    state = OUT;
    nl = nw = nc = 0;
    while ((c = getchar()) != EOF) {
        ++nc;
        if (c == '\n')
            ++nl;
        if (c == ' ' || c == '\n' || c == '\t')
            state = OUT;
        else if (state = OUT) {
            state = IN;
            ++nw;
        }
    }
    printf("%d %d %d\n", nl, nw, nc);
}

---

nc increments correctly but also reads '\n' as character too.
also the main problem is that nw never increases from zero no matter how many words i type. and I'm just beginner i don't know how to debug the code.

ps: I've tried the code on two operating systems both had this problem (ubuntu with gcc and windows with mingw)

You probably copied it wrong. Look again at line #19, for example. "=" is assignment, "==" is comparison.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GReaper

You probably copied it wrong. Look again at line #19, for example. "=" is assignment, "==" is comparison.

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@OP, you would have caught this problem if you had your compiler warnings turned on. For example, with gcc you could have done:

Code:

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gcc -Wall -o someprog someprog.c

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Without -Wall:

Code:

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~/cprogs/cboard $ gcc -o count count.c
~/cprogs/cboard $

---

With -Wall:

Code:

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~/cprogs/cboard $ gcc -Wall -o count count.c
count.c: In function ‘main’:
count.c:19:9: warning: suggest parentheses around assignment used as truth value [-Wparentheses]
        else if (state = OUT) {
        ^
/cprogs/cboard $

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For my own programs, I also use the -Wextra option as well. You can see what these two options do by looking at the gcc man page on your system.

i changed

Code:

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else if (state = OUT)

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to

Code:

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else if (state == OUT)

---

and it now it works thanks for the help and your suggestions

-W is the same as -Wextra, and there's also -pedantic. So full warnings are:
gcc -Wall -W -pedantic ...
You could make an alias:
alias wcc='gcc -std=c99 -Wall -W -pedantic' # choose whatever standard you wish
Then compile like
wcc -o myprog myprog.c

To add that alias to the end of your .bashrc:
echo "alias wcc='gcc -std=c99 -Wall -W -pedantic'" >> ~/.bashrc

And don't be fooled by the word "pedantic". That's just their (Richard Stallman's?) opinion.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by algorism

And don't be fooled by the word "pedantic". That's just their (Richard Stallman's?) opinion.

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No. Pedantic means to warn you about things that might violate the Standard. For example -pedantic should warn if you use // ... style comments when compiling with C89 mode.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by c99tutorial

No. Pedantic means to warn you about things that might violate the Standard. For example -pedantic should warn if you use // ... style comments when compiling with C89 mode.

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I obviously wasn't saying that the warnings it gives are just some dude's opinion, since that would be idiotic. I was saying that calling the warnings that it gives "pedantic" is just some dude's opinion.