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Inconsistent Output When Using `fgets` and `sscanf` Together in C - Buffer Issues

πŸ‘€ Views: 72 πŸ’¬ Answers: 1 πŸ“… Created: 2025-06-15
c input sscanf fgets C

I'm trying to figure out I'm trying to configure Hey everyone, I'm running into an issue that's driving me crazy... I'm working with an scenario with using `fgets` followed by `sscanf` in my C program where the output is inconsistent and sometimes incorrect. I have a simple loop that reads a line of input from the user, then parses it into separate variables for processing. However, I've noticed that if the input contains whitespace, `sscanf` doesn't behave as expected. For example, if a user enters "John Doe 25", I expect to extract "John Doe" into a string and `25` into an integer. Here's a snippet of my code: ```c #include <stdio.h> #include <string.h> int main() { char input[100]; char name[50]; int age; while (1) { printf("Enter name and age (or 'exit' to quit): "); if (fgets(input, sizeof(input), stdin) == NULL) break; if (strcmp(input, "exit\n") == 0) break; // This sscanf call is where I'm having issues if (sscanf(input, "%49[^"] %d", name, &age) != 2) { printf("behavior: Invalid input format.\n"); } else { printf("Name: %s, Age: %d\n", name, age); } } return 0; } ``` I thought using `"%49[^"]"` should capture everything up to a space, but it seems to unexpected result when there's a trailing newline or extra spaces in the input. I've tried adding additional checks and cleaning up the input string before parsing, but the question continues. For instance, when I input "John Doe 25", it doesn't read correctly. I expected `sscanf` to still handle the whitespace properly. Has anyone encountered this, and what’s the best way to handle input parsing in such cases? I'd really appreciate any guidance on this. What am I doing wrong? My team is using C for this CLI tool. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. This is part of a larger application I'm building. How would you solve this?