trying to get user input, put the input into a array then clear the input so it can get more

Question

so im trying to get input from a user then put the input into a array and then clear the input so it can get more but all i get is these weird symbols here is my code

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

char source[] = "this is the source string";

int main()
{

char people[5][260];
char input[260];

int i, l;

printf("please enter 5 names\n");

for(i=1;i<6;i++)
{
    gets(input);
    strcpy(people[1], input);
    input[260] = '\0';


}

for(l=0;l<6;l++)
    printf("%s\n", people[l]);
}

}

Answer 1

Change

    for(i=1;i<6;i++) 
    {
        gets(input);
        strcpy(people[1], input);
        input[260] = '\0';
    }

to

    for(i=0;i<5;i++)
    {
        gets(input);
        strcpy(people[i], input);
        input[0] = '\0';
    }

Now to be clear i changed the loop from 0 to 5 instead of 1 to 6 because

array indices start from 0.

In the strcpy function call you passed the same value again and again which is 1, I changed it to the loop variable i, which is the correct way.

In your code snippet you assigned the value of input[260] = '\0' which is also wrong.

'\0' is used to denote the end of a string

so as you have to empty your character array so

'\0' should be assigned to the first index of the array to denote that the array is empty.

Now in the second loop, since you have stored 5 names so the loop should be from i=0 to i<5 instead of i<6

So change

for(l=0;l<6;l++)
    printf("%s\n", people[l]);

to

for(l=0;l<5;l++)
    printf("%s\n", people[l]);

And also you used an extra curly brace after the last printf statement. Remove it and your code is fixed.

Since you have used the return type of the main function as int

int main()

So it would return an integer value, so

you should use a return statement

before the last curly brace like this

return 0;

You have declared a character array named source[] with a global scope but you haven't used it anywhere in your code so it's better if you remove it.

And also properly

indent your code using white spaces and tabs to make it understandable and readable

, with code indentation your code will be more readable and you won't miss any curly brace or use extra ones like you used in your code.

To sum up your new code will look like this:

    #include <stdio.h>
    #include <stdlib.h>
    #include <string.h>
    int main()
    {
        char people[5][260];
        char input[260];
        int i, l;
        printf("please enter 5 names\n");
        for(i=0;i<5;i++)
        {
            gets(input);
            strcpy(people[i], input);
            input[0] = '\0';
        }
        for(l=0;l<5;l++)
           printf("%s\n", people[l]);
        return 0;
    }

Answer 2

1. The first for loop should go from 0 to 5, not 1 to 6.

2. Pretty sure you meant to put i in the brackets here, not 1:

strcpy(people[1], input);

3. Don't use gets or strcpy; they're insecure. Use fgets and strlcpy or strncpy instead.

4. input[260] should be input[259]; element 260 is out of bounds.

5. Set input[259] to zero before you copy the string, not after.

6. The second loop goes from 0 to 6. Again it should go from 0 to 5, since 5 is the maximum allowed index of an array of size 6.