How to get the number of characters or lines by the CHARACTER COUNTING and LINE COUNTING programs in C?

Question

I just started writing C programs and I am taking help of The C Programming book written by Dennis Ritchie. When I tried to run the program for COUNTING characters or new lines, i was expecting some numbers as solutions but it didn't happen, instead it just allowed me to enter characters, with no value( of the number of lines/ characters) in return. I am new to programming. I would appreciate some help to get me through.

character counting

#include <stdio.h>

main( )
{
      long nc;

      nc=0;
      while (getchar( ) != EOF)
               ++nc;
      printf( "%1d\n",  nc );
}

Possible duplicate of [How to send EOF via Windows terminal](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/16136400/how-to-send-eof-via-windows-terminal) — Klas Lindbäck, Jul 18 '16 at 08:57
Few additional possible problems: (1) your `main` doesn't conform to the **C** standard. (2) your `printf` format tag `%1d` is wrong, should be `%ld` for argument of type `long`. (3) did you intend your code also to count "invisible" characters (blanks, newlines)? — user3078414, Jul 18 '16 at 09:41

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 18 '16 at 08:56

2

As you can see in the line

while (getchar( ) != EOF)

Your program is expecting an EOF (End Of File) before printing the counter.

Therefore you should type your text then Ctrl + D (EOF in a *nix command shell) or Ctrl + Z (Windows) to cut your input.

Then your counter will be printed.

Regards

answered Jul 18 '16 at 08:56

LiGhTx117

218
2
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Ctrl+ Z prints ^Z on the screen. But I just tried ctrl+2 and it took me back to the code. What to do next? I know may sound silly but I really don't know much right now :) – user6602613 Jul 18 '16 at 09:01
Are you using the Windows CMD ? – LiGhTx117 Jul 18 '16 at 09:04

Sergio · Answer 2 · 2016-07-18T09:46:12.473

0

Seems like you are confused with sending input to your program. Your code reads characters one by one from so called STDIN until it reads EOF (End-Of-File) marker. Usually STDIN - is a keyboard, so whatever you type appears to be read by getchar(). If you wish to send EOF - press Ctrl+D (unix systems). Another alternative - use prefilled text file and use it as STDIN for your program via redirection:

$ ./a.out < my_input.txt

This approach works well both on *nix and win systems.

edited Jul 18 '16 at 09:46

answered Jul 18 '16 at 09:30

Sergio

8,099
2
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Did you mean `./a.out < my_input.txt` ? – user3078414 Jul 18 '16 at 09:45
Oh, yes :) Thanks! – Sergio Jul 18 '16 at 09:46

How to get the number of characters or lines by the CHARACTER COUNTING and LINE COUNTING programs in C?

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