Why does one work and the other not, fgets() vs scanf()

Question

Attached is the code for the Head First C book. It uses fgets() where the example from gitHUB uses scanf(). When using fgets() I do not receive any output from the program whereas scanf() will produce an output. using the gcc compiler.

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

char tracks[][80] = {
  "I left my heart in Harvard Med School",
  "Newark, Newark - a wonderful town",
  "Dancing with a Dork",
  "From here to maternity",
  "The girl from Iwo Jima",
};

void find_track(char search_for[])
{
  int i;
  for (i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
    if (strstr(tracks[i], search_for))
      printf("Track %i: '%s'\n", i, tracks[i]);
  }
}

int main()
{
  char search_for[80];
  printf("Search for: ");
  //fgets(search_for, 80, stdin);//this does not work, from the book
  scanf("%79s", search_for);//works from gitHUB
  find_track(search_for);
  return 0;
}

c newbie

@user2245762 fgets appends the new line character to the target character array. You should remove it as for example like search_for[ strcspn( search_for, "\n" ) ] = '\0'; — Vlad from Moscow, Jan 07 '18 at 12:41
By the way if there is such code in the book like this then the book is very bad.:) — Vlad from Moscow, Jan 07 '18 at 12:45
`scanf("%79s", search_for);` will not "work" if input included a space like `"t m"`. This will work with a corrected application of `fgets()`. — chux - Reinstate Monica, Jan 07 '18 at 12:54

Why does one work and the other not, fgets() vs scanf()

0 Answers0