CODEWITHSUNDEEP
ccharacterscanfformat-specifiers
Shubham_Dubey
Shubham_Dubey

Reputation: 51

Whitespace before %c specification in the format specifier of scanf function in C

When I don't include white space between %d and %c specification in the format string of scanf() function in the following program, and give input during run-time as "4 h", then the output is "Integer = 4 and Character= .

How exactly variable "c" takes the input in this case and what difference does it make if i include a white space between %d and %c specification ?

Code

#include <stdio.h>

int main()
{
    char c;
    int i;
    printf("Enter an Integer and a character:\n");
    scanf("%d %c",&i,&c);
    printf("Integer = %d and Character = %c\n",i,c);
    getch();
}

Upvotes: 3

Views: 4851

Answers (2)

Jonathan Leffler
Jonathan Leffler

Reputation: 753475

If you read the specification for scanf() carefully, most format specifiers skip leading white space. In Standard C, there are three that do not:

  • %n — how many characters have been processed up to this point
  • %[…] — scan sets
  • %c — read a character.

(POSIX adds a fourth, %C, which is equivalent to %lc.)

Input white-space characters (as specified by isspace) shall be skipped, unless the conversion specification includes a [, c, C, or n conversion specifier.

Adding the space between %d and %c means that optional white space is skipped after the integer is read and before the (not white space) character is read.

Note that literal characters in a format string (other than white space — for example, the X and Y in "X%dY") do not skip white space. Matching such characters does not count as a successful conversion either; they do not affect the return value from scanf() et al.

Upvotes: 8

haccks
haccks

Reputation: 105992

A space before %c specifier in scanf instruct it to skip any number of white-spaces. In other words, read from standard input until and unless a non-white-space character or keyboard interrupt is found.

Upvotes: 1

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