Home I am trying to input three characters using scanf in loop and also outside loop in C but none is working properly

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I am trying to input three characters using scanf in loop and also outside loop in C but none is working properly

December 4, 2021

Here, I am inputting characters using scanf in for loop but it it takes only one character.
This problem is not happening with integer. Why?

(1) IN LOOP :-

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void) {
    char p1, p2, p3, c1, c2;
    int i, t;
    // t is the number of testcases.
    printf("Enter number of testcases : ");
    scanf("%d", &t);
    for(i = 0; i < t; i++){
        printf("Enter three characters : \n");
        scanf("%c%c%c", &p1, &p2, &p3);
        printf("Again enter characters\n");
        scanf("%c%c", &c1, &c2);
        printf("\nEnd");
    }
    return 0;
}

I am able to input only two characters.

OUTPUT :

Enter number of testcases : 2
Enter three characters : 
a
Again enter characters
s

End
Enter three characters : 
d
f
Again enter characters
g
End

(2) WITHOUT LOOP :-

 #include<stdio.h>
 int main(){
    char p1, p2, p3, c1, c2;
    int i, t;
    printf("Enter three characters : \n");
    scanf("%c%c%c", &p1, &p2, &p3);
    getchar();
    printf("Again enter characters\n");
    scanf("%c%c", &c1, &c2);
    printf("\nEnd");
    return 0;
}

OUTPUT :

Enter three characters : 
a
s
Again enter characters
d

End

>Solution :

Place a space before format specifier in scanf.

    #include<stdio.h>
    int main(void) {
    char p1, p2, p3, c1, c2;
    int i, t;
    // t is the number of testcases.
    printf("Enter number of testcases : ");
    scanf("%d", &t);
    for(i = 0; i < t; i++){
        printf("Enter three characters : \n");
        scanf(" %c %c %c", &p1, &p2, &p3);
        printf("Again enter characters\n");
        scanf(" %c %c", &c1, &c2);
        printf("\nEnd");
    }
    return 0;
}