Collapse spaces

Write a program that reads all input (from standard input) and prints it transformed as follows:

• any sequence of whitespace that does not contain newline is replaced with a single space character
• whitespace characters immediately before a newline are deleted.

I'm just starting out in C and I need some helping understanding this problem. My main issue would be how do I print the modified text after making the program? If you decide to solve it, please use comments so I can understand what you're doing. Thank you!!

Have you attempted to write this yourself? We are not here to write the code for you.

Make an attempt to write this yourself, then if you have questions or problems, post your code, and we can give you advice.

Please read the Forum Rules FAQs before posting here.

Was this an assignment from an Instructor, or from a book, or online tutorial?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rstanley

Have you attempted to write this yourself? We are not here to write the code for you.

Make an attempt to write this yourself, then if you have questions or problems, post your code, and we can give you advice.

Please read the Forum Rules FAQs before posting here.

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I did not mean to make it look like I just want someone to do my task, I just need some help. I wrote this so far:

Code:

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#include <stdio.h>
#include <ctype.h>
int collapseSpaces{
    int c1=getchar();
    int c2=getchar();
    while(isspace(c1) && issspace(c2)){  // my logic here was that I'd check if two consecutive characters are both spaces and if it is true, I'd replace them with a single space character
            c1=c2=' ';
    }
int main()
{
return 0;
}

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I've also created a .txt file (I work in putty), in order to write some text to check if the program is working. As I stated above, I also need some help understanding how to print the modified text in main. Also I don't fully understand the newline part of the problem.

This would be my basic approach

1) Read one char at a time from stdin
2) If char is a space, keep reading chars until a non space char or newline is input
3) If not a newline, print out one space, the non-space char just read, and continue
If the char just read is a newline, then just output the newline and continue

If the input is:
"This is a test. [newline]"

It means to trim the trailing spaces as well as the spaces between words. The results should be"
"This is a test.[newline]"

I would use loops instead of collapseSpaces().

Start simple, one step at a time

Read one char at a time and output it to the stdout using putchar(), ignoring multiple spaces.

Then add the check for multiple spaces.

If input is directly from a keyboard, instruct the user to use [Ctrl] [d] on a Linux system, or [Ctrl] [z] on a Windows computer to terminate the program, or some specific char (Symbol?).

One alternative is to write the chars out to a disk file.
1) open the disk file
2) Write the chars out to the disk file using fputc()
3) Close the disk file