C: Writing a loop to print the alphabet between two characters

Question

I've been given the pretty simple task of writing a program that will take two characters and then print the letters inbetween them using a for() loop.

Here's my code:

#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
char a, b;

printf("\nEnter the first character: ");
scanf("%c", &a);

printf("\nEnter the second character: ");
scanf("%c", &b);

for(char i = a; i <= b; i++) {
    printf("%c ", i);
}

return 0;
}

When I run it, I am prompted to enter the first character correctly but when I press enter it only runs the next printf() and then terminates.

No errors or warnings or anything on compilation. Another similar question I found that was apparently solved does not work for me either.

Thanks in advance.

`scanf("%c", &b);` --> `scanf(" %c", &b);` – LPs Dec 07 '16 at 16:31 — LPs, Dec 07 '16 at 16:31

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 07 '16 at 16:32

2

You have to consume the \n in stdin left by first scanf.

Fastest fix

scanf(" %c", &b);

The space before %c tells to scanf to ignore all whitespaces before to read the char.

answered Dec 07 '16 at 16:32

LPs

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score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 07 '16 at 16:32

If I read your code correctly, by pressing enter, you would enter the second character, which would most probably (depending on the environment) start with a numeric value of 13, which would be smaller than any letter, so the loop's body is executed only once.

C: Writing a loop to print the alphabet between two characters

2 Answers2