So I’m unfamiliar with the getchar() function in C (because I’m new to programming).
I want to know how to make the code below take a number of characters (whether thru a file or by inputting from keyboard) and count them with a while loop which has the getchar() function.
I want it to read up until the end of a file (or keyboard input).
As of right now the code doesn’t return anything (even if you type in the commandline).
The OS I’m running this code from is Windows.
#include <stdio.h>
int main(void){
int blanks = 0, digits = 0, letters = 0, others = 0;
int c; //use for actual integer value of character
printf("WELCOME TO WHILE CHARACTER COUNTER: WRITE ANY CHARACTER:\n");
while ((c = getchar()) != EOF){
if (c == ' ') //counts any blanks on a text
++blanks;
else if (c >= '0' && c <= '9')
++digits;
else if (c >= 'a' && c <= 'z' || c >= 'A' && c<= 'Z')
++ letters;
else
++ others;
}
printf ("\nNumber of:blank characters = %d, digits = %d, letters = %d", blanks, digits, letters);
printf ("\nOther characters = %d", others);
return 0;
}
>Solution :
Your code works, in principle. For the input This is a test. followed by the newline character, followed by end-of-file, your program has the following output:
WELCOME TO WHILE CHARACTER COUNTER: WRITE ANY CHARACTER:
Number of:blank characters = 3, digits = 0, letters = 11
Other characters = 2
Click this link to test your program yourself with that input.
I suspect that your problem is rather one of the following:
-
You don’t know how to execute your program in such a way that input is redirected from a file.
-
You don’t know how to enter end-of-file on the keyboard.
In order to call your program in such a way that input is redirected from a file, on most operating systems, you can call your program the following way:
myprogramname < inputfile.txt
When you are reading input from a terminal/console, you can enter end-of-file the following way:
- On Linux, you can use the keyboard combination CTRL+D.
- On Microsoft Windows, you can use the keyboard combination CTRL+Z.