Ask the user a number between 2 and 20

Question

Here is my attempt:

#include <stdio.h>

int main()
{
    int number = -1;
    printf("Enter a number in range [2,20]\n");
    scanf("%d", &number);
    while (number < 2 || 20 < number)
    {
        while (getchar() != '\n')
        {
        }
        printf("Try again\n");
        scanf("%d", &number);
    }
    printf("Your number was: %d", number);
    return 0;
}

But the solution from the professor is the following:

#include<stdio.h>

int main(){
    int n;
    while(scanf("%d",&n)==0 || n <2 || n >20){
        while ( getchar () != ’\n’);
        printf( "Wrong. Try again\n");
    }
    printf ( "%n\n",n);
    return 0;
}

Both approaches seem to work fine but is there a benefit to his method? Is it possible that scanf changes variable even though it couldn't read in a correct number. In that case checking the result of the scanf function would protect the program from accepting a wrong answer.

Answer 1

Prof's transcribed code has weaknesses

#include<stdio.h>

int main(){
    int n;
    while(scanf("%d",&n)==0 || n <2 || n >20){
        while ( getchar () != ’\n’);
        printf( "Wrong. Try again\n");
    }
    printf ( "%n\n",n);
    return 0;
}

Infinity loop

When input is closed after a scanf("%d",&n) == 0, getchar() can eventual return EOF before '\n' and thus while ( getchar () != ’\n’); never ends.

Smart quotes

’\n’ vs. '\n'. Transcription problem or is that in the original? In any case, the posted code was certainly not compiled.

Invalid specifier

"%n" does not print the int value. It is undefined behavior as "%n" matches an int *.

    //printf ( "%n\n",n);
    printf ( "%d\n",n);

---

Requirement weakness

"Ask the user a number between 2 and 20" is a classic ambiguity. Depending on perspective are 2 and 20 acceptable or not? Better to provide more detail

"Ask the user a number, inclusively, between 2 and 20" or the like.

---

OP code has issues too.

#include <stdio.h>

int main()
{
    int number = -1;
    printf("Enter a number in range [2,20]\n");
    scanf("%d", &number);
    while (number < 2 || 20 < number)
    {
        while (getchar() != '\n')
        {
        }
        printf("Try again\n");
        scanf("%d", &number);
    }
    printf("Your number was: %d", number);
    return 0;
}

Failure to check input return value

scanf("%d", &number); may have failed due to non-numeric text input. Check the result.

// scanf("%d", &number);
if (scanf("%d", &number) == 1) Success();
else Fail();

Infinite loop

OP's code suffers same potential infinite loop on end-of-file

// while (getchar() != '\n') { }
int ch;
while ((ch = getchar()) != '\n' && ch != EOF) { }

Also check scanf() return value.

Functional difference

With non-numeric input, Prof's code tries again. OP's code, which does not evaluate the return value of scanf(), technically leads to trouble on rare input error. On input error, the value of number is indeterminate. See comment

The 2 locations to take user input is simply twice the amount of code that needs checking. Better to take input from 1 call. Production code would have a get_int() to handle this. Something like getint()

---

but is there a benefit to his method?

OP's' code does have an informative prompt.

Else not much, both need work. Perhaps

// untested code
#include<stdio.h>
#define MIN_N 2
#define MAX_N 20

int main(void) {
  int cnt;
  int n;
  printf("Enter a number in range [%d,%d]\n", MIN_N, MAX_N);
  while((cnt = scanf("%d",&n)) == 0 || ((cnt == 1) && (n < MIN_N || n > MAX_N))) {
    int ch;
    while ((ch = getchar ()) != '\n' && ch != EOF) {
      ;
    }
    printf( "Wrong input. Try again\n");
  }
  if (cnt == 1) printf ( "%d\n",n);
  return 0;
}

Better code would read a line into a string and process the input with strtol().

Answer 2

There's actually, a special loop in C called the do...while loop to solve such questions:

Here you go:

#include<stdio.h>
#include<stdlib.h>

main(argc,argv)
const char** argv;
{
    int num=0;
    do {
        scanf("%d",&num);
    } while(num<2 || num>20);
    printf("The number is: %d",num);
    return 0;
}

Answer 3

The one plus on the prof's code is that it has only one call to scanf(). Not repeating code when unneeded is good.

The minus on both implementations is the use of scanf() at all. Personally, I would use fgets() and strtol(), and perhaps ensured that the user hasn't typed something like "3 or 4".