Count number of same letters in a string

Question

I have been reading "The C Programming Language" and I got to this problem, that my output is 0 for any given string I send.

My function looks like this:

 int number_of_repeating(char *word,char k){
    int b=0,len=0,i;
    gets(word);
    len=strlen(word);
    for(i=0;i<len;i++){
        if(word[i]==k)
        b++;
    }
    return  b;
}

Problem:

I send him word for example: Jhonny, and character n, so it should count number of n's in the word (in this case the output should be 2).

What am I doing wrong?

Please format question properly and stick to the actual language you are using. Thanks. — luk32, Dec 11 '14 at 18:24
If you pass "Johnny" as an argument, you don't need `gets`, just remove that line completely. — Ishamael, Dec 11 '14 at 18:27
`number=bnumber_of_repeating(word,c);` word is entered above, and character is entered above like this : `printf("enter a word"); scanf("%s",word); printf("enter a character"); scanf("%c",&c);` — Michael, Dec 11 '14 at 18:27
@Michael Update the question itself. http://stackoverflow.com/posts/27429810/edit — 2501, Dec 11 '14 at 18:28
@Ishamael answered. THanks. yeah i dont need gets(word) if im passing the word already. — Michael, Dec 11 '14 at 18:29
@Michael In you comment above you call bnumber_of_repeating(word,c) where as initially you declare number_of_repeating(word,c). Are you probably calling wrong method? — istovatis, Dec 11 '14 at 18:31
Just [don't ever use `gets()`](http://stackoverflow.com/q/2843073/10077), even if you do need to get input. Use fgets()` or something else that's capable of being used safely. — Fred Larson, Dec 11 '14 at 18:32
@FredLarson and when is the best situation to use `gets()` ? can you give some example. thanks — Michael, Dec 11 '14 at 18:42
@Michael: There IS NO SITUATION in which you should use `gets()`. Never. Pretend it doesn't exist. — Fred Larson, Dec 11 '14 at 18:46
@Michael There is no _direct_ substitute for `gets()`. Use alternatives like `fgets()` or `getline()`. They have slightly different approaches concerning buffers as compared to `gets()` which simply assumes there is enough space for all user input. — chux - Reinstate Monica, Dec 11 '14 at 19:03
@chux is it okay to use `scanf("%s",string)` and then `strcpy()` instead of getline or fgets? — Michael, Dec 11 '14 at 19:09
@Michael Not really. Same problems. Many folks, including myself, avoid `scanf()`. Further, `scanf("%s",string)` and `gets()` have different functionality. `scanf("%s",string)` only saves non-white-space input and `gets()` reads up to `'\n'`, including other white-space. I have a candidate `gets()` substitute at http://stackoverflow.com/a/27429750/2410359 Certainly many exists. — chux - Reinstate Monica, Dec 11 '14 at 19:19

Ankur · Accepted Answer · 2014-12-11T18:43:36.077

1

#include <stdio.h>
int number_of_repeating(char *word,char k){
    int b=0,len=0,i;
    gets(word); //<------- You need to remove this one because it may overwrite
    len=strlen(word);
    for(i=0;i<len;i++){
        if(word[i]==k)
        b++;
    }
    return  b;
}
int main(void) {
    // your code goes here
    printf("%d",number_of_repeating("johnny",'n'));
    return 0;
}

edited Dec 11 '14 at 18:43

answered Dec 11 '14 at 18:34

Ankur

3,584
1
24
32

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 11 '14 at 18:38

0

if you're passing the string in there is no reason to call gets(), that could be it or your types could be wrong.

answered Dec 11 '14 at 18:38

peterjtk

41
1
7

Count number of same letters in a string

2 Answers2