Question

I need to read in a file from C, store it in an array and print its contents. For some reason I keep seeing octal in my output near the end. I am dynamically creating the array after counting how many lines and characters are in it after opening the file.

output:

Abies 
abies 
abietate 
abietene 
abietic 
abietin
\320ѿ_\377Abietineae --> umlaut? where did he come from?
y\300_\377abietineous

code:

int main(int argc, char ** argv) {

char c = '\0';
FILE * file;
int i = 0, j = 0, max_line = 0, max_char_per_line = 0;

/* get array limits */
file = fopen(argv[1], "r");
while ((c = fgetc(file)) != EOF){
    if (c == '\n'){
        max_line++; j++;
        if (j > max_char_per_line){
            max_char_per_line = j;
        }
        j = 0;
        continue;
    }
    j++;
}

rewind(file);
/* declare array dynamically based on max line and max char */
char word[max_line][max_char_per_line];

/*read in file*/
j = 0; c = '\0';

while ((c = fgetc(file)) != EOF){
    if (c == '\n'){
        word[i][j] = '\0';
        i++; j=0;
        continue;
    }

    word[i][j] = c;
    j++;
}
word[i][j] = '\0';

fclose(file);
for (i = 0; i < max_line; i++){
    printf("%s\n", word[i]);
}



    return 0;
}

Answer 1

Change read routine:

   if (c == '\n'){
        word[i][j] = 0x0;
        i++; j=0;
        continue;
    }

and add the “\n” back in the printf routine.

for (i = 0; i < max_line; i++){
    printf("%s\n", word[i]);
}

C strings are zero-terminated, not “\n”-terminated, so when you printf()ed them, printf() did not know where to stop printing.