Inputting strings from a file

Hello everyone. I'm having a problem in a program I'm working on and I broke the program up into this small bit here. I've done searches on the forum and tried to input this file from what I've seen on other posts but what I cannot figure out is why the strings are not getting read correctly. Can anyone help?

The error is that it's not printing the first 2 strings being read. The last (which is a char) gets read and prints out just fine strangely enough.

Input:

Code:

---

PROGA      0000  C
LISTB      0000  I
ENDB      0000  I
P          0048  R
BR        104B  R
B1        104E  R
B2        1061  R

---

Code:

---

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

FILE *st_fptr,
    *fopen();

int main( void )
{
  char temp_name[6];
  char temp_value_str[4];
  char temp_type;
 
  if ( ( st_fptr = fopen ( "symtab.txt", "r" ) ) == NULL )
  {
      printf ( "Can't open 'symtab.txt' file!\n" );
      getchar();
      exit(1);
  } 

  while ( !feof ( st_fptr ) )
  {
      fscanf ( st_fptr, "%s%s%s", temp_name, temp_value_str, &temp_type );
      printf ( "name: %s\n", temp_name );
      printf ( "string: %s\n", temp_value_str );
      printf ( "type: %c\n\n", temp_type );
  } 
 
  printf ( "Press return to continue..." );
  getchar();
 
  return 0; 
}

---

One thing I notice is that temp_value_str isn't large enough to hold the string. It needs to have at least 5 elements for there to be enough space.

Also, temp_type is a char, but you're using %s instead of %c.

Hey thanks :) I changed the second string to hold 5, and %s to %c and now the first 2 strings display but the last one won't anymore. Strange.. I don't get that.

How about something like this?

Code:

---

#include <stdio.h>

int main( void )
{
  FILE *file = fopen ( "file.txt", "r" );
  if ( file )
  {
      char name[6], value[5], type[2];
      while ( fscanf ( file, "%5s%4s%1s", name, value, type ) == 3 )
      {
        printf ( "name:  %s\n",  name  );
        printf ( "string: %s\n",  value );
        printf ( "type:  %s\n\n", type  );
      }
  }
  return 0;
}

---

[edit]I chose a string for the third parameter because the %c directive is not whitespace-delimited like %s.

Hey Dave. That solution looks like it will work but the only question I have is that I need "type" to just be a single char and you've defined it as an array of 2. Can fscanf read just a single char correctly?

One more question also... If i'm reading in a string should I always put those numbers in between the % and the s the way you have shown?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mystic_Skies

Hey Dave. That solution looks like it will work but the only question I have is that I need "type" to just be a single char and you've defined it as an array of 2. Can fscanf read just a single char correctly?

---

Yes.

Code:

---

      char name[6], value[5], type;
      while ( fscanf ( file, "%5s%4s %c", name, value, &type ) == 3 )
      {
        printf ( "name:  %s\n",  name  );
        printf ( "string: %s\n",  value );
        printf ( "type:  %c\n\n", type  );
      }

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mystic_Skies

One more question also... If i'm reading in a string should I always put those numbers in between the % and the s the way you have shown?

---

Yes.

Thanks for the help. Problem solved. :D