CodeBlocks exe stops working

Question

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include<string.h>
int main()
{
    char string;
    printf("Hello\n");
    printf("What would you like to do\n");
    printf("Here are the options\n");
    printf("s : How are you\n");
    printf("c : What would you like to search\n");
    scanf("%s",&string);
    if(string == 'h')
        printf("iam fine\n");

    else if (string == 's')
        printf("What would you like to search\n");
    scanf("%s",&string);
    system(string);
    return 0;
}

When I run this after it says what would you like to search and I type run notepad it stops working.

Sourav Ghosh · Answer 1 · 2015-03-09T14:22:00.630

1

Problem 1. defining string as char won't work for you. you need an array.

define char string[100] = {0};

Problem 2. scanf("%s",&string); not required, can be used as scanf("%s",string);

problem 3. if(string == 'h'), wrong. array contents cannot be compared using == operator. you've to use strcmp() function.

edited Mar 09 '15 at 14:22

answered Mar 09 '15 at 14:13

Sourav Ghosh

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Keeping `string` as type `char` won't work - OP wants to use it to store the string "notepad", for instance. – Daniel Kleinstein Mar 09 '15 at 14:18
@DanielKleinstein Thanks. I just stopped looking at the very first incorrect instance. – Sourav Ghosh Mar 09 '15 at 14:20

Klas Lindbäck · Accepted Answer · 2015-03-09T15:50:59.560

There are two problems with this scanf:

printf("What would you like to search\n");
scanf("%s",&string);
system(string);

string is a single char - the scanf will result in a buffer overrun.
The %s format specifier only reads until the next whitespace.

To fix the problem you should allocate a larger buffer and read an entire line:

char buffer[1024];
printf("What would you like to search\n");
fgets(buffer, sizeof buffer, stdin);
system(buffer);

CodeBlocks exe stops working

2 Answers2