Using scanf() get an int and some strings?

Question

I am using scanf to read a integer n and then read n strings. But it seems does not work. Here is the program:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>

#define MAX 1000
#define MAX_LEN 81

char str[MAX][MAX_LEN];
int a,i;


int main()
{
        scanf("%d", &a);
        for (i=0; i<a; ++i) {
                scanf("%[^\n]", str[i]);
        }

        for (i=0; i<a; ++i)
                printf("%s\n", str[i]);

}

Using %[^\\n] I want to a sentence into a single string. What is the problem?

update: I want to input like this:

 4
 one 
 two
 THREE three
 FOUR four

But in fact, when I input a "4", the program then output 4 blank lines and then exits.

[walle@centos64 ~]$ ./a.out
4
_
_
_
_

where the output I expected is like this:

[walle@centos64 ~]$ ./a.out
4
one
two
THREE three
FOUR four

thans.

Answer 1

Use fgets other than scanf to get input lines. An extra getchar is there to consume the new line after inputting the integer n .

scanf("%d", &a);
getchar();
for (i=0; i<a; ++i) {
        fgets(str[i], sizeof(str[i]), stdin);
}

for (i=0; i<a; ++i)
        printf("%s", str[i]);

Note that fgets would store the new line in the string as well. Remove it if you don't need it.

Answer 2

You simply need to add a space before specifier in scanf . It will consume \\n left in stdin and will make you able to give second input and so on.

Change to scanf(" %[^\\n]", str[i]); and printf(" %s\\n", str[i]);

Notice the space given in scanf .

Answer 3

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>

#define MAX 1000
#define MAX_LEN 81

char str[MAX][MAX_LEN];
int a,i;


int main()
{
        scanf("%d", &a);
        for (i=0; i<a; ++i) {
                scanf("%s[^\n]", str[i]);
                /* scanf("%s", str[i]);*/        /*this line is also OK */
        }

        for (i=0; i<a; ++i)
                printf("%s\n", str[i]);

}


$ gcc -g t.c
$ ./a.out 
2
one
two
one
two

you missed 's' in "%s[^\\n]" before "[^\\n]".