Counting Tab, Blank and Newlines in C

Question

The code won't work. The counting results of b(blank) and t(tab) are both 0. I think there maybe the issue with my condition set up. Can anyone help?

main()
{
int c, b, t, nl;

nl = 0;
b = 0;
t = 0;
    while ((c = getchar()) != EOF)
        if (c == '\n')
            ++nl;
        if (c == ' ')
            ++b;
        if (c == '  ')
            ++t;

    printf("%d\t%d\t%d\n", nl, b, t);

}

Unlike Python, C doesn't care about indentation. Only the first `if` statement is inside the loop. The other two are after the loop, where `c` is equal to `EOF`. — user3386109, Jan 25 '18 at 04:45
Use `'\t'` for `tab` (e.g. `if (c == '\t')` not multiple spaces. — David C. Rankin, Jan 25 '18 at 04:48
Had you stepped through with a debugger, of just added a couple of extra printfs, you would have fixed this without SO;( — Martin James, Jan 25 '18 at 05:30

Aditi Rawat · Answer 1 · 2018-01-25T05:12:26.880

The code as posted by you is equivalent to:

main()
{
int c, b, t, nl;

nl = 0;
b = 0;
t = 0;
    while ((c = getchar()) != EOF) //your code is equivalent to this
    {
        if (c == '\n')
            ++nl;
    } //the following if conditions fall outside the loop
        if (c == ' ')
            ++b;
        if (c == '\t')//tab is represented by \t not by '  '
            ++t;

    printf("%d\t%d\t%d\n", nl, b, t);

}

You need to add braces around your while loop i.e.

int main(void)
{
int c, b, t, nl;

nl = 0;
b = 0;
t = 0;
    while ((c = getchar()) != EOF){
        if (c == '\n')
            ++nl;
        if (c == ' ')
            ++b;
        if (c == '\t')
            ++t;
        }
    printf("%d\t%d\t%d\n", nl, b, t);
    return 0;
}

Another important thing: main() is not standard C
how does int main() and void main() work

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 25 '18 at 04:45

0

Two spaces is not char, it is string. Try this:

if(c == ' ')
    b++;
if(c == '\t')
    t++;
if(c == '\n')
    nl++;

answered Jan 25 '18 at 04:45

Eziz Durdyyev

1,110
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`switch` could also be considered? – AJD Jan 25 '18 at 05:32
for readability concerns yeah but for optimization concerns modern compilers optimizes this kind of 'if' statements too. – Eziz Durdyyev Jan 25 '18 at 05:54

Counting Tab, Blank and Newlines in C

2 Answers2