Reading multiple strings from file seperated with space, using fscanf

Question

So i want to read some strings from a text file that are seperated with spaces. The code i have been using is this:

int main() {
  char name[9];
  char surname[20];
  char phone[10];
  int code, nscan;
  char termch;
  FILE* infile;

 infile = fopen("I4F6.txt", "r");
if (infile == NULL)
 printf("Error reading text file\n");


 while (TRUE){

nscan= fscanf(infile, "%[^ ] %[^ ] %[^ ] %d%c",
                         name, surname, phone, &code, &termch);


 printf("%s %s %s %d\n", name ,surname, phone, code);


  if (nscan == EOF)
    break;
  if (nscan != 5 || termch != '\n')
    printf("Error line\n");
  }   
   return 0;
}     

An the text file goes like this, with the name first, then the surname, a phone number that needs to be saved as string and a code.

nikos dimitriou 6911111112 1
maya satratzemi 6933333332 20
marios nikolaou 6910001112 15
maria giannou 6914441112 1
dimitra totsika 6911555111 14
giannis pappas 6911111222 16
nikos ploskas 6911111662 20

But the result i get from this printf is this:

nikos  6911111112 1

maya  6933333332 20

marios  6910001112 15

maria  6914441112 1

dimitra  6911555111 14

giannis  6911111222 16

nikos  6911111662 20

Error line
nikos  6911111662 20   

So as you can see it skips all the surnames and produces an error line.

So what should I do to read and store every value seperated with space from the text file into a variable?

Thanks for your time

Answer 1

OP's key problem is using char phone[10]; to store "6911111112" which needs 11 char . This all leads to undefined behavior with the unlimited %[^ ]

what should I do to read and store every value separated with space from the text file into a variable?

*scanf() is difficult to use to detects lines and not get fooled with line endings like "\\r\\n" . Better to read the line and then parse it and use width limited fields.

Consider using %n (it stores the scan offset) to detect a proper scan.

char name[9];
char surname[20];
char phone[10+1];

char buf[100];
while (fgets(buf, sizeof buf, infile)) {
  int n = 0;
  sscanf(buf, " %8[^ ] %19[^ ] %10[^ ]%d %n", name, surname, phone, &code, &n);

  // incomplete scan or extra text detected
  if (n == 0 || buf[n]) {
    printf("Error line\n");  // do not use name, surname, phone, code
    break;
  }

  printf("%s %s %s %d\n", name, surname, phone, code);
}