Another assignment problem

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10-02-2005
the_winky_files

Another assignment problem

This one doesn't sound very hard but I wanted to 2nd opinions on the directions. They don't make very much sense to me. Here are the directions:

"Write a program that finds the "smallest" and "largest" in a series of words. After the user enters the words, the program will determine which words would come first and last if the words were listed in dictionary order. The program must stop accepting input when the user enters a four-letter word. Assume the no word is more than 20 letters long. An interactive session with the program might look like this:

Enter word: dog
Enter word: zebra
Enter word: rabbit
Enter word: catfish
Enter word: walrus
Enter word: cat
Enter word: fish

Smallest word: cat
Largest word: zebra

Hint: Use two strings named smallest_word and largest_word to keep track of the "smallest" and "largest" words entered so far. Each time the user enters a new word, use strcmp to compare it with the smallest_word; if the new word is "smaller," use strcpy to save it in smallest_word. Do a similar comparison with largest_word. Use strlen to determine when the user has entered a four-letter word."

Ok, here's my problem. Does it want me to arrange the words in alphabetical order or not? The example doesn't show it printing them out in alphabetical order or anything. Also, does it want the word to be four letters or twenty letters? It says to stop accepting input when four letters are entered but then it says assume no word is more than twenty letters. Does this make any sense to you guys?
10-02-2005
Hammer

>>Does it want me to arrange the words in alphabetical order or not?
Does it ask you to or not? The hints section is pretty clear in what it expects of you.

>>does it want the word to be four letters or twenty letters?
>>Does this make any sense to you guys?
Just like it says:
- no word is more than twenty letters
- stop accepting input when the user enters a four-letter word

The answers are in the question! :)
10-02-2005
Thantos

It makes perfect sense to me. read the hint because its a good hint. You don't have to arrange anything, infact all you have to keep is the smallest and largest word. It tells you to stop when they enter a 4 letter word. The part about assuming to word is more then 20 letters just lets you use a fixed size buffer to read into and copy into.

Maybe you are getting confused by the smallest and largest part. Lets go with something you should know, numbers:
0 3 2 8 10 11 6

Whats the smallest number? The largest number? How did you figure that out? You can use the same process as outlined for the words as you can for the numbers.

Now go lookup what strcmp() returns
10-02-2005
the_winky_files

ok, I get it then. why do the directions say "after the user enters the words, the program will determine which words would come first and last if the words were listed in dictionary order." doesn't that mean arrange them in alphabetical order? also, on the example they give of the output, the word "zebra" is 5 characters long. Another reason that I am confused because it says stop taking input after 4 characters. Here is the code I have to read 4 characters entered by the user so far.

Code:

#include <stdio.h> #define N 20 int read_line(char str[], int n); int main() { int i=4; char word1[N], word2[N], word3[N], word4[N], word5[N], word6[N], word7[N]; printf ("Enter a word: "); read_line(word1, i); printf("%s\n", word1); return 0; } int read_line (char str[], int n) { char ch; int i = 0; while ((ch = getchar()) != '\n') if (i < n) str[i++] = ch; str[i] = '\0'; return i; }

Is this what it means by only accepting four characters?
10-02-2005
Hammer

>>why do the directions say ...
>>doesn't that mean arrange them in alphabetical order?
No, it means work out which words would be first and last. You can do that without storing them all at the same time, therefore you won't need to arrange them.

>>it says stop taking input after 4 characters
No, it says stop when the user enters a four-letter word, not when they enter 4 characters.

Your code needs changing to allow the user to enter upto 20 characters for a word.
10-02-2005
the_winky_files

I really am confused on this: "No, it says stop when the user enters a four-letter word, not when they enter 4 characters." What's the difference? so should I just change the variable 'i' to 20 and it will be fine? where in the code do I make the 4 letter word rule and how would I do it because I really don't understand what this means?
10-02-2005
Hammer

You need to do the following:

- Read a line, maximum 20 characters
- Check the length of the word entered, if it's 4, stop reading.

The difference between a four letter word, and four characters, is that a 5 letter word starts with 4 characters ;) Stopping when the user enters these 4 characters of the 5 letter word would be incorrect.

There's already a function to get a line of data, it's called fgets().
http://faq.cprogramming.com/cgi-bin/...&id=1043284385

You can use strlen() to determine the length of the word entered.

You don't need all those word1, word2 etc arrays. Just 3 are needed, one each for the current smallest and largest, and one for the word you're currently reading.
10-02-2005
the_winky_files

I was wondering in the prototype you gave me, what exactly is GOOD_READ supposed to be? Also, do I even need my read_line function anymore?
10-02-2005
loko

This is just sorting. Try search for 'sorting strings'.

*edited

You may wanna look into 2d arrays for storing strings into an array.
10-02-2005
Hammer

GOOD_READ (refers to some code in a PM), represents a return value that simply means that the read was successfully performed. It could be implemented in any way you see fit.

And no, you don't need your read_line, you can use fgets(). It's up to you ;)

@loko: This is not about sorting at all. Please don't confuse the issue anymore than it already is ;)
10-02-2005
the_winky_files

does this not replace my read_line function? I was thinking the two were equivalent or something. I don't understand really what's going on here. do the contents of my read_line function go within here or is this something just completely different? I'm not too familiar with fgets() yet so I wouldn't feel confident using it. Also, I'm not quite sure how to implement the GOOD_READ. How would I make the program know if it properly read a string or not?

Code:

if (strlen(current) == 4) { /* * 4 character string entered, * set flag to terminate loop */ break; } return i;
10-02-2005
loko

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hammer

@loko: This is not about sorting at all. Please don't confuse the issue anymore than it already is ;)

Yes my bad lol. I didnt read the problem thouroughly. I just look at it and replied.
10-02-2005
Hammer

Code:

char smallest[SIZE]; char largest[SIZE]; char current[SIZE]; while (read_line(current, SIZE) == GOOD_READ) < --Read one line { /* * here would be the part that * tests current against smallest and largest */ if (current < smallest) //<-- perform test to see if this is the smallest so far { copy(smallest, current); } else if (current > largest) //<-- perform test to see if this is the largest so far { copy(largest, current); } if (strlen(current) == 4) //<-- perform test to see if current is 4 characters long { /* * 4 character string entered, * break out of the loop */ break; } }

Note: the tests here:
if (current < smallest)
need to be done using strcmp(), you cannot do exactly as I've shown (that was for concept only)

I can't give you much more help without actually writing it all for you. :)
10-02-2005
the_winky_files

Is the code below correct? It runs good but I'm not exactly sure if this is what the question is asking.

Code:

#include <stdio.h> #include <stdlib.h> #include <string.h> #define size 20 int main() { char largest_word[size]; char smalest_word[size]; char word[size]; int ch; printf("Enter a word: "); scanf("%s", word); strcpy(largest_word, word); strcpy(smalest_word, word); while(strlen(word) != 4 ) { printf("Enter a word: "); scanf("%s", word); if( strcmp(smalest_word, word) > 0 ) strcpy(smalest_word, word); if( strcmp(largest_word, word) < 0 ) strcpy(largest_word, word); } printf("The Smalest word: %s\n", smalest_word); printf("The Largest word: %s\n", largest_word); return 0; }
10-03-2005
nonpuz

An string is a series of characters terminated by a \0, so if you have a string say "hello" in C it's stored as "hello\0" so you need to make space for that one extra character that is automatically added to your string.

So if I had a string that has a maximum of 5 characters, i need an array size of 6 characters to store the extra \0, do you understand what I'm getting at?