Counter is not incrementing properly

Question

my counter does not seem to increment (for c programming)

int ch;
int counterX = 0;
int counterY = 0;

while(( ch = getchar()) != EOF ) {

    if (ch == 'X'){
        counterX = counterX + 1;
        }
    if (ch == 'Y'){
        counterY = counterY + 1;
        }
}

ive done some testing and I the number for counterX and counterY doesnt seem to increase, regardless of my input. Please help!

The code you submitted is not compilable because you missed the definition of ch and you are missing the brace enclosing the while loop - that brace could be crucial. — Angus Comber, Aug 31 '14 at 10:27
sry this is just a rough portion of my current program that has the issue. ill edit it properly — user2947725, Aug 31 '14 at 10:30
Try to debug your code: http://ericlippert.com/2014/03/05/how-to-debug-small-programs/ — alk, Aug 31 '14 at 10:31

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 31 '14 at 10:28

That should work, provided you add a closing brace, and the rest of the program. And provided you actually have X and/or Y appearing on the input stream.

For example, the following complete program:

#include <stdio.h>

int main (void) {
    int ch, counterX = 0, counterY = 0;

    while ((ch = getchar()) != EOF) {
        if (ch == 'X')
            counterX = counterX + 1;
        if (ch == 'Y')
            counterY = counterY + 1;
    }
    printf ("X = %d, Y = %d\n", counterX, counterY);
    return 0;
}

will, when run with echo XYZZY | testprog, output:

X = 1, Y = 2

As an aside, if you a good enough C coder to use the:

while ((a = something) == somethingElse)

construct, you should probably know about the counterX++ shorthand as well :-)

yeah my bad, i forgot to put my output inside my loop. thx anyways — user2947725, Aug 31 '14 at 10:53

Counter is not incrementing properly

1 Answers1