How to read a line from the console in C?

Question

What is the simplest way to read a full line in a C console program The text entered might have a variable length and we can't make any assumption about its content.

Answer 1

Something like this:

unsigned int getConsoleInput(char **pStrBfr) //pass in pointer to char pointer, returns size of buffer
{
    char * strbfr;
    int c;
    unsigned int i;
    i = 0;
    strbfr = (char*)malloc(sizeof(char));
    if(strbfr==NULL) goto error;
    while( (c = getchar()) != '\n' && c != EOF )
    {
        strbfr[i] = (char)c;
        i++;
        strbfr = (void*)realloc((void*)strbfr,sizeof(char)*(i+1));
        //on realloc error, NULL is returned but original buffer is unchanged
        //NOTE: the buffer WILL NOT be NULL terminated since last
        //chracter came from console
        if(strbfr==NULL) goto error;
    }
    strbfr[i] = '\0';
    *pStrBfr = strbfr; //successfully returns pointer to NULL terminated buffer
    return i + 1; 
    error:
    *pStrBfr = strbfr;
    return i + 1;
}

Answer 2

This function should do what you want:

char* readLine( FILE* file )
 {
 char buffer[1024];
 char* result = 0;
 int length = 0;

 while( !feof(file) )
  {
  fgets( buffer, sizeof(buffer), file );
  int len = strlen(buffer);
  buffer[len] = 0;

  length += len;
  char* tmp = (char*)malloc(length+1);
  tmp[0] = 0;

  if( result )
   {
   strcpy( tmp, result );
   free( result );
   result = tmp;
   }

  strcat( result, buffer );

  if( strstr( buffer, "\n" ) break;
  }

 return result;
 }

char* line = readLine( stdin );
/* Use it */
free( line );

I hope this helps.

Answer 3

You need dynamic memory management, and use the fgets function to read your line. However, there seems to be no way to see how many characters it read. So you use fgetc:

char * getline(void) {
    char * line = malloc(100), * linep = line;
    size_t lenmax = 100, len = lenmax;
    int c;

    if(line == NULL)
        return NULL;

    for(;;) {
        c = fgetc(stdin);
        if(c == EOF)
            break;

        if(--len == 0) {
            len = lenmax;
            char * linen = realloc(linep, lenmax *= 2);

            if(linen == NULL) {
                free(linep);
                return NULL;
            }
            line = linen + (line - linep);
            linep = linen;
        }

        if((*line++ = c) == '\n')
            break;
    }
    *line = '\0';
    return linep;
}

Note: Never use gets ! It does not do bounds checking and can overflow your buffer

Answer 4

As suggested, you can use getchar() to read from the console until an end-of-line or an EOF is returned, building your own buffer. Growing buffer dynamically can occur if you are unable to set a reasonable maximum line size.

You can use also use fgets as a safe way to obtain a line as a C null-terminated string:

#include <stdio.h>

char line[1024];  /* Generously large value for most situations */

char *eof;

line[0] = '\0'; /* Ensure empty line if no input delivered */
line[sizeof(line)-1] = ~'\0';  /* Ensure no false-null at end of buffer */

eof = fgets(line, sizeof(line), stdin);

If you have exhausted the console input or if the operation failed for some reason, eof == NULL is returned and the line buffer might be unchanged (which is why setting the first char to '\0' is handy).

fgets will not overfill line[] and it will ensure that there is a null after the last-accepted character on a successful return.

If end-of-line was reached, the character preceding the terminating '\0' will be a '\n'.

If there is no terminating '\n' before the ending '\0' it may be that there is more data or that the next request will report end-of-file. You'll have to do another fgets to determine which is which. (In this regard, looping with getchar() is easier.)

In the (updated) example code above, if line[sizeof(line)-1] == '\0' after successful fgets, you know that the buffer was filled completely. If that position is proceeded by a '\n' you know you were lucky. Otherwise, there is either more data or an end-of-file up ahead in stdin. (When the buffer is not filled completely, you could still be at an end-of-file and there also might not be a '\n' at the end of the current line. Since you have to scan the string to find and/or eliminate any '\n' before the end of the string (the first '\0' in the buffer), I am inclined to prefer using getchar() in the first place.)

Do what you need to do to deal with there still being more line than the amount you read as the first chunk. The examples of dynamically-growing a buffer can be made to work with either getchar or fgets. There are some tricky edge cases to watch out for (like remembering to have the next input start storing at the position of the '\0' that ended the previous input before the buffer was extended).

Answer 5

Many people, like me, come to this post with the title matching what is searched for, though the description is saying about variable length. For most cases, we know the length beforehand.

If you do know length before hand, try below:

char str1[1001] = { 0 };
fgets(str1, 1001, stdin); // 1000 chars may be read

source: https://www.tutorialspoint.com/c_standard_library/c_function_fgets.htm

Answer 6

If you are using the GNU C library or another POSIX-compliant library, you can use getline() and pass stdin to it for the file stream.