Why is my self made function having 1 more added to it?

Question

I tried to make a my own strlen function and when I tried to run it I always get +1 value to my counter. E.g. if it's 3 characters it would return 4 etc. Here is my code:

#include <stdio.h>
#define MAX 1000
void length(char string[MAX]){
    int i, counter = 0; 
    for(i=0;string[i]!='\0';i++){
       counter++;
    }
    printf("Your string has %d characters", counter);
}
int main(){
    char ch[MAX];
    printf("Enter a string: ");
    fgets(ch, MAX, stdin);
    length(ch);
}

Any tips for a beginner like me would also be appreciated thanks! :)

@RetiredNinja should that even matter, based on the `length()` logic ? — Kagiso Marvin Molekwa, Nov 15 '21 at 07:39
Ahh, I see it now lol I was used to using gets but then found out that it could be dangerous sometimes. But I still don't understand why would it add 1 more? Is it because after the newline there's a null character? — airismything, Nov 15 '21 at 07:42
_Is it because after the newline there's a null character?_: yes, otherwise it would not be a string. A string is terminated by a null character by definition. — Jabberwocky, Nov 15 '21 at 07:44
By the way, you don't need the `counter` variable, at the end of the loop `counter == i`. — Some programmer dude, Nov 15 '21 at 07:47
*I still don't understand why would it add 1 more?* Your 3-letter word might be 'CAT'. That's **C - A - T - newline** which is 4 characters. Please see [Removing trailing newline character from fgets() input](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2693776/removing-trailing-newline-character-from-fgets-input/28462221#28462221) — Weather Vane, Nov 15 '21 at 08:04

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 15 '21 at 07:39

From the fgets() docs:

Reads at most count - 1 characters from the given file stream and stores them in the character array pointed to by str. Parsing stops if a newline character is found, in which case str will contain that newline character, or if end-of-file occurs. [...]

Why is my self made function having 1 more added to it?

1 Answers1