No output on a character count while loop

Question

I follow the book C programing second edition and try to output this code:

#include <stdio.h>
main()
{
    long nc;
    nc = 0;

    while(getchar() != EOF)
        ++nc;
    printf("%1d\n", nc);
}

and I can't figure out why I don't have any output.

I work on crunchbang++ and to create the output I entered in the terminal:

cc -ansi file.c

then

./a.out

but when I enter characters I have a blank response.

I don't want just the working code, but an explanation, because I really want to learn how it works.

Answer 1

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void)
{
    long num_of_chars = 0;

    while(getchar() != '\n'){
        ++num_of_chars;
    }

    printf("%ld\n", num_of_chars);
}

EOF means End of File.
EOF is not a character. It is a state which indicates no more characters to read from a file stream. When you enter EOF command from the terminal, you are signalling the OS to close the input stream, not putting in a special character.

Now either you can change your code to read a file, emulate EOF, or cancel while loop on different character.

Above example will end while loop on new line.

$ ./main
This is a test
14

Edit:
Tested on linux with EOF.
Ctrl + Z will outright stop the program.
Ctrl + D will output num_of_chars if pressed twice or by doing Enter and then Ctrl + D.

Edit 2:
With EOF.
printf foo | ./your_program Output: 3
echo foo | ./your_program Output: 4 (echo adds newline caharacter)