Best way to flush a character array

Completely Clueless · 08-02-2010, 03:24 PM

Hi guys,

This is for the C language, BTW.

I believe I have unwanted '\n' characters left in a 9 element character array that are causing subsequent operations with it to fail. I see wildly differing views on the web on the proper way to flush 'em. It's clearly not as simple as it would appear at first sight. What's currently the best (or else "least deprecated") method?

dwhitney67 · 08-02-2010, 03:46 PM

Here we go again... I posted code very similar to the following in another one of your threads.

Code:

char array[9];
...

// find the '\n' (newline), if any, within the array
//
char* nl = strchr(array, '\n');

if (nl != NULL)
{
   // replace the newline character with a null character
   //
   *nl = '\0';
}

The man-page for strchr().

P.S. Another alternative is to iterate through the array yourself.

Code:

char* p = array;
do
{
   if (*p == '\n')
   {
      *p = '\0';
      break;
   }
} while (*(++p) != '\0');

Completely Clueless · 08-02-2010, 03:54 PM

Sorry, at one point there was such a flurry of postings on that thread in quick succession that I couldn't keep up with it all.

wje_lq · 08-02-2010, 07:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Completely Clueless

Sorry, at one point there was such a flurry of postings on that thread in quick succession that I couldn't keep up with it all.

Um, people took the time out to write that flurry, and it was done for your benefit.

Completely Clueless · 08-03-2010, 03:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wje_lq

Um, people took the time out to write that flurry, and it was done for your benefit.

I look at all the replies eventually. It can often take a few days, however. But none get ignored. I have even hit the "thanks" button for people more than 3 months after their posts in extreme cases.

Finally, these threads are archived and searchable indefinitely. It's not just one person that gets informed by them, but countless other people with the same query in the future.

Sergei Steshenko · 08-03-2010, 05:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Completely Clueless

Hi guys,

This is for the C language, BTW.

I believe I have unwanted '\n' characters left in a 9 element character array that are causing subsequent operations with it to fail. I see wildly differing views on the web on the proper way to flush 'em. It's clearly not as simple as it would appear at first sight. What's currently the best (or else "least deprecated") method?

If you are sure it's the last character before the '\0' then obviously '\n' position is at (strlen(s) - 2).

If you are not sure, 'man 3 rindex' is your friend.

...

'rindex' is a faster solution if '\n' is known to be in the second half of the array.