CODEWITHSUNDEEP
cformattinguser-input
JayJay Simpson
JayJay Simpson

Reputation: 155

How do you insert N blank spaces in text file

I have created a program that reads a file inputted by the user and

inside the file contains formatting features such as .br and .spX, where X is an integer.

so I am trying to implement these formatting features in the output.

I have made my program to break the sentence when it sees ".br" but now

I am trying to create 1 blank line when it sees ".sp" and ".sp2" it should

print two blanked lines then continue on with the text.

while ( ( fscanf ( fp, "%60s", word)) == 1) {
    if ( strcmp ( word, ".br") == 0) { // break the text when you see .br
        printf ( "%s\n", line);
        line[0] = '\0';
        out = 1;
    }

       if ( strcmp ( word, ".spn") == 0) { // insert n blank lines

    }

So for example "Hello my name is .sp2 Josh" should output:

Hello my name is 


Josh

Upvotes: 0

Views: 1656

Answers (2)

M Oehm
M Oehm

Reputation: 29126

You could take advantage of the fact that fscanf formats that require a numerical conversion don't advance the file pointer when the conversion fails.

So if you encounter the string ".sp", scan the next string for a number. If that fails, you have your default case, a single blank line. Otherwise, you have the number of spaces to print.

For example:

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

int main(void)
{
    FILE *fp = fopen("josh.txt", "r");
    char word[61];
    int wc = 0;

    if (fp == NULL) {
        fprintf(stderr, "Could not open 'josh.txt'.\n");
        exit(1);
    }

    while (fscanf(fp, "%60s", word) == 1) {
        if (strcmp (word, ".br") == 0) {
            putchar('\n');
            wc = 0;

            continue;
        }

        if (strcmp (word, ".sp") == 0) {
            int n;

            if (fscanf(fp, "%d", &n) < 1 || n < 0) n = 1;

            putchar('\n');
            while (n-- > 0) putchar('\n');
            wc = 0;

            continue;
        }

        if (wc++ > 0) putchar(' ');
        printf("%s", word);
    }

    putchar('\n');
    fclose(fp);

    return 0;
}

Upvotes: 1

user3121023
user3121023

Reputation: 8286

If there are no spaces between the .sp and the integer, as in .sp4, then strncmp could be used to compare the first three characters and then sscanf to capture the integer.

if ( strncmp ( word, ".sp", 3) == 0) {
    if ( ( sscanf ( &word[3], "%d", &blanks)) == 1) {
        printf ( "%s\n", line);
        while ( blanks) {
            blanks--;
            printf ( "\n");
        }
        line[0] = '\0';
        out = 1;
    }
    else {
        printf ( "%s\n", line);
        line[0] = '\0';
        out = 1;
    }
}

Upvotes: 3

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