C Scanf突然停止读取值

Question

I'm trying to run a simple C program on my Mac. It worked fine for a while but then suddenly scanf stopped working. I basically want to read in an integer value and output what was entered. No matter the integer I enter the program keeps outputting 0. I've tried the suggestions here but nothing works. I've tried running the program in both terminal and xcode but still nothing. Any ideas?

#include <stdio.h>

int main(){
  int numberOfElements = 0;
  scanf("Number of elements: %d",&numberOfElements);
  printf("%d\n",numberOfElements); //keeps returning 0 no matter the number I enter
  return 0;
}

Answer 1

You have to print the prompt, and only scan the input:

printf("Number of elements: ");
fflush(stdout);
scanf("%d", &numberOfElements);

Generally, it is better to avoid using scanf() directly. Instead, you can obtain a line of input and then use sscanf() on the retrieved string for better control of errors.

char line[MAX_LINE];
if (fgets(line, sizeof(line), stdin) != NULL) {
    if (sscanf(line, "%d", &numberOfElements) != 1) {
        printf("You didn't input a number: %s", line);
        /* ... */
    }
}

Answer 2

You should not have Number of elements: in the scanf statement. You want to change the scanf statement to:

printf ( "Number of elements: " );
scanf ("%d", &numberOfElements );

Answer 3

When you include any non-format characters into scanf/fscanf/sscanf format string, it means that you require these characters to be present in the input stream (or input string, in case of sscanf ). If these characters are not present in the input, scanf fails. Space character has special meaning though, causing scanf to skip all whitespace, but not requiring any whitespace to be present.

So, in order for this scanf to succeed

scanf("Number of elements: %d", &numberOfElements);

you have to enter, literally

Number of elements: 10

or

Numberof    elements:10

or

Numberofelements:    10

or something like that. Ie you have to type in the words Number , of , elements and the : as well. If you just enter 10 , the scanf will fail, since a mere 10 does not match the requested format.

I'm sure this was not your intent. What you really wanted to do, apparently, is to print the prompt using printf and then do a simple

scanf("%d", &numberOfElements);

The aforementioned feature of scanf could be useful, but probably only in some rare cases. This means that when you see any non-format text in scanf format string, there's a good possibility that something is wrong.