hi,
this is the code for a structure:
#include <stdio.h>
main()
{
char name[3];
float price[3];
int pages[3], i;

printf("\nEnter names,prices and no. of pages of 3 books\n");
for(i=0;i<=2;i++)
scanf("%c%f%d",&name[i],&price[i],&pages[i]);

printf("\nAnd this is what you entered\n");
for(i=0;i<=2;i++)
printf("%c%f%d\n",name[i],price[i],pages[i]);
}
but the output of this program after entering the name price and pages of
3 books is garbage.plz point me where is the mistake.

The two most evident mistakes which i find in your code are

1)use char* name[3] instead of char name[3]

2)you are going out of bounds in ur loops with test condition

i<=2

it should be i<2

i am evaluting the code i ll tell you the other mistakes in a moment

ah my mistake the loop thing is absolutely fine

the array size if 3 and ur condition is i<=2 which is right

this would be another way of doing it:

struct book{
char name[50]; // you can use a book name instead of just 1 char like yours had
float price;
int pages;
};

int main(void)
{
struct book books[3];
int i;

printf("for 3 books type- NAME PRICE PAGES <enter> for each\n");

for(i=0; i<=2; i++){
scanf("%s%f%d",&books[i].name,&books[i].price,&books[i].pages);
}

for(i=0; i <=2; i++){
printf("name: %s price: $%.02f pages: %i\n",
books[i].name, books[i].price, books[i].pages);
}
return 0;
}

my input:
a 2.09 10
b 2.15 30
c 0.99 50

my output:
name: a price: $2.09 pages: 10
name: b price: $2.15 pages: 30
name: c price: $0.99 pages: 50

You should create a 2-d char array as sibtay wrote and use scanf like these

Notice the %s placeholder which is for char array and lack of & in front of the name[i] because when you create a 2-d char array name[i] will be an address already. Also you should use %s when printing name[i] in the second loop.

i have done this with c++'s cin function

I was not able to do it scanf...the problem is that in the second iteration of the first for loop, scanf("%c",&name[i]) is not working properly

Because you are using a character placeholder %c instead of a character array placeholder %s. And declaration of name[i] should also be changed. Look at the posts before. These will fix i think.

scanf() should never ever be used to input a string for the same reason gets() should never ever be used. Use fgets() to input a string.

gets() is very dangerous; i agree with that, but when we use scanf() we have a chance to specify character count to be read:

GOOD:
BAD:
WORSE:

You're right. I'm sorry. What I meant to say was scanf() should never use the %s modifier to input a string unless you specifiy the width like you did with the %19s. Without the width scanf("%s", str); is just as bad as gets(str);