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Always defaulting to the else

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Re: Always defaulting to the else

#11

Jan 7th, 2009

I want to ask them with a prompt, "What day is it?

I then want them to enter Sunday, Monday, etc.

I used %c because I was trying to reading the name of the day, which would be a set of characters.

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Re: Always defaulting to the else

#12

Jan 7th, 2009

You will have to declare an array of characters to input into, you can't input directly into the enum.

The % format for an array of characters is %s

Then you will have to compare what they typed against a list of strings you have to 'look up' the proper enum.

What do you want to do if the user enters a string that doesn't match any of the days?

(What day is it? Orange)

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Re: Always defaulting to the else

#13

Jan 8th, 2009

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Originally Posted by RenFromPenn

I want to ask them with a prompt, "What day is it?

I then want them to enter Sunday, Monday, etc.

I used %c because I was trying to reading the name of the day, which would be a set of characters.

No, you don't want this. At least not in total.
First, %c reads a single character
Second, %s reads a string, but you don't want to use it. Here's why
Third, it also makes your code much more complicated. You have to read in the string, then convert that string to the correct integer. Instead, how about prompting:
What day is it (0=Sunday, 1=Monsay...)?

Last edited by WaltP; Jan 8th, 2009 at 11:22 pm.

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Re: Always defaulting to the else

#14

Jan 9th, 2009

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Originally Posted by WaltP

No, you don't want this. At least not in total.
First, %c reads a single character
Second, %s reads a string, but you don't want to use it. Here's why
Third, it also makes your code much more complicated. You have to read in the string, then convert that string to the correct integer. Instead, how about prompting:
What day is it (0=Sunday, 1=Monsay...)?

That is how I had already decided to set it up since asking for the day by name wasn't working.

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Re: Always defaulting to the else

#15

Jan 12th, 2009

delete this

Last edited by Alibeg; Jan 12th, 2009 at 8:20 am. Reason: mistake

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Re: Always defaulting to the else

#16

Jan 12th, 2009

it looks like finished business to me but i will say it anyway....
using enumeration, for example enum colors {RED, BLUE, YELLOW, GREEN} favouriteColor; you actually make an integer variable that can be assigned integer values using keywords you define. to make it simple:

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 C Syntax (Toggle Plain Text) 
#include <stdio.h>
 
enum colors {RED, BLUE, YELLOW, GREEN, ORANGE, VIOLET} favouriteColor;
enum shape {TRIANGLE, SQUARE, RECTANGLE ,CIRCLE, OVAL}
 
main ()
{
   shape favouriteShape; // This is just a demonstration of second way to define a variable
 
   favouriteColor = BLUE;
   favouriteShape = SQUARE;
}
#include <stdio.h>

enum colors {RED, BLUE, YELLOW, GREEN, ORANGE, VIOLET} favouriteColor;
enum shape {TRIANGLE, SQUARE, RECTANGLE ,CIRCLE, OVAL}

main ()
{
   shape favouriteShape; // This is just a demonstration of second way to define a variable
   
   favouriteColor = BLUE;
   favouriteShape = SQUARE;
}

what enumeration actually does is making your code much more readable.
consider this:

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C Syntax (Toggle Plain Text)

   favouriteColor = 1;
   favouriteShape = 1;

and if you have tons of statements like these you will soon find yourself in mass of numbers where you dont know what numbers actually mean, and you would have to go to enumeration on the begining of the code to say: "Ah, yes...2 was YELLOW."

you cannot write something like:

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 C Syntax (Toggle Plain Text) 
   printf ("What is your favourite color?");
   scanf ("%d", favouriteColor);
   printf ("What is your favourite color?");
   scanf ("%d", favouriteColor);

and enter word RED on input, because facouriteColor is an integer.
you also cant use scanf ("%s", favouriteColor); instead, because favouriteColor is far from being a string of chracters

if you want to use form you mentioned on the begining, something like: "What day is it?", you should use array of chars for input, and than compare it with constant strings: "Sunday", "Monday" ... using function strcmp(string1, string2) , where strcmp evaluates (equals) 0 if they are the same, <0 if string1<string2 and >0 if string1>string2 is greater (by their ascii values). you can also use strcmpl(string1, string2) , it is same as first one but doesnt take small and capital letters into account. i dont have any other methods for this on my mind right now.