How to output two values from the same function

Question

Basically what the title says. I have this program:

#include <cs50.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <ctype.h>

int letter_countf(string Text1);

int main(void)
{
    string TextIn = get_string("Text: ");
    int letter_count = letter_countf(TextIn);
    printf("%i\n", letter_count);

}

int letter_countf(string Text)
{
    int Is_letter = 0; int Is_space = 0;
    for(int i = 0; i < strlen(Text); i++)
    {
        if (isspace(Text[i]) != 0)
        {
            Is_space++;
        }
        else
        {
            Is_letter++;
        }
    }
}

And I want the output of the function letter_countf, to be both the Is_space and Is_letter variables. How do I store both values?

define a struct, with respective fields, which you will return as a value. — Marek R, Mar 14 '22 at 14:40
offtopic: there are characters which are not space and not a letter. — Marek R, Mar 14 '22 at 14:41

Vlad from Moscow · Accepted Answer · 2022-03-14T14:58:21.350

There are different ways. For example you can declare a structure and return an object of this structure as for example

struct Items
{
    int letter;
    int space;
};

struct Items letter_countf(string Text)
{
    struct Items items = { .letter = 0, .space = 0 };

    for(int i = 0; i < strlen(Text); i++)
    {
        if (isspace(Text[i]) != 0)
        {
            items.space++;
        }
        else
        {
            items.letter++;
        }
    }

    return items;
}

Another way is declare the variables letter_count and space_count in main and pass them to the function by reference

void letter_countf(string Text, int *letter_count, int *space_count );

//...

int letter_count = 0, space_count = 0;
letter_countf( TextIn, &letter_count, &space_count );

How to output two values from the same function

1 Answers1