Reading whole lines using fgets

Reading whole lines using fgets#

scanf focuses on space separated data:

#include <stdio.h>

#define LINE_SIZE 100
char line[LINE_SIZE];

int main() {
  puts("Please enter your full name:");
  scanf("%s", line);
  printf("Is your name correct?: %s \n", line);
}

$ echo Anastasia Nikolaevna Romana | code-wi/reading_whole_line_scanf.exe
Please enter your full name:
Is your name correct?: Anastasia

We see in the command output that only the first word is read into the variable, but not the rest.

fgets gets a whole line from a file. The file to read keyboard input is stdin. It additionally needs the maximum number of characters to read.

fgets also stores the trailing newline in the end of a line. So we have to get rid of it (compared to scanf).

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

#define LINE_SIZE 100
char line[LINE_SIZE];

int main() {
  puts("Please enter your full name:");
  fgets(line, _Countof line, stdin);
  line[strcspn(line, "\n")] = '\0';
  printf("Is your name correct?: %s \n", line);
}

$ echo Anastasia Nikolaevna Romana | code-wi/reading_whole_line_fgets.exe
Please enter your full name:
Is your name correct?: Anastasia Nikolaevna Romana

Tip

Use fgets for reading a whole line and scanf for parsing word/s from a line.

Activity 19

Would you use scanf or fgets in Spare parts inventory assistant? Why?

Going back to the problem#

Activity 20

Now use what you have learned to implement Spare parts inventory assistant:

Appendix#

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