scanf() function in c

Question

In scanf space and \n is delimiter for the character i/p. The below program accepts only two input. I could not understand why does it accept two input.Please explain about this behaviour.

     char a,b,c;
    scanf("%c%c%c",&a,&b,&c);
    printf("%c%c%c",a,b,c);
    return 0;

It doesn't "accept two inputs", it accepts three consecutive chars. — Mat
– Mat, Commented Aug 14, 2011 at 8:59

Mat · Accepted Answer · 2011-08-14 09:00:58Z

5

It does accept 3 inputs if you don't put spaces between the input characters.

If you want to allow space(s) between inputs use scanf("%c %c %c",&a,&b,&c);.

edited Aug 14, 2011 at 9:00

Mat

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answered Aug 14, 2011 at 8:58

Karoly Horvath

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4 Comments

Ray Toal Over a year ago

Oooooohhhhhh, that's what the OP wanted! :-)

Angus Over a year ago

it accepts 2 inputs when given scanf("%c%c%c",&a,&b,&c) without space and it accepts three input when given scanf("%c %c %c",&a,&b,&c) with space.

Karoly Horvath Over a year ago

@Beata: first one reads three consecutive characters (reads space too). Second one reads three non-whitespace characters (so both "123", "1 2 3" and any number of spaces between them works)

Angus Over a year ago

@yi_H:yeah it reads as you have said.I'm little late to understand it.Thanks.

Hans · Accepted Answer · 2011-08-14 08:59:55Z

1

If you enter the characters '123' without seperating them by a space or a carriage return then a is set to '1', b to '2' and c to '3'. If you seperate the characters by a space ('1 2 3') then a is set 1, b to ' ' and c to '3'. Note, a space is also handled as a input character!!

answered Aug 14, 2011 at 8:59

Hans

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