Question

I’m trying to nest a if/else inside a case switch statement. When I enter case ‘p’ or ‘P’ no matter what character is typed the $15.00 line is printed. I have tried moving/adding {}’s with no change in output.

Thanks for taking time to help a noob out.

Entire code now here.

#include <stdio.h>

int main()
{
//variable declarations 
char typeOfWash, tireShine;

//Menu
printf("R ---> Regular ($5.00)\n");
printf("B ---> Bronze ($7.50)\n");
printf("G ---> Gold ($10.25)\n");
printf("P ---> Platinum ($15.00)\n");
printf("Tire Shine can be added to the Gold or Platinum ONLY,");
printf("for an additional$2.50\n\n");

printf("Enter your selection: ");
scanf("%c",&typeOfWash);

switch (typeOfWash)
{
    case 'R': case 'r':
        printf("Your bill total is: $5.00\n");
        break;
    case 'B': case 'b':
        printf("Your bill total is: $7.50\n");
        break;
    case 'G': case 'g':
        printf("Would you Like a Tire Shine? (Y/N): ");
        scanf("%c ",&tireShine);
        if (tireShine == 'Y' || tireShine == 'y')
            printf("Your bill total is: $12.75\n");
        else
            printf("Your bill total is: $10.25\n");
        break;
    case 'P': case 'p':
        printf("Would you Like a Tire Shine? (Y/N): ");
        scanf("%c ",&tireShine);
        printf("%c",tireShine);
        if (tireShine == 'Y' || tireShine == 'y')
            printf("Your bill total is: $17.50\n");
        else
            printf("Your bill total is: $15.00\n");
        break;
    default:
        printf("Invalid Choice");

}
return 0;
}

Answer 1

The problem is that using scanf with the %c format specifier results in white space not being consumed, which in your case results in a \n being left in the input buffer. What your instructor seems to have suggested is to eat the trailing white space from the initial input with the next scanf; however, I suspect that they said to insert a leading space rather than a trailing space as this fixes your problem:

scanf(" %c", &tireShine);

Alternatively, you could use getchar() immidiately before your second scanf and consume the new line character beforehand:

getchar();
scanf("%c", &tireShine);

A second alternative would be to use the %s format specifier instead of %c and handle it accordingly.

Be warned that getchar() will only consume one character from the input buffer. If a user were to input a string longer than 1 character, for example, you would need to have something like while ((x = getchar()) != '\n') ; to clear the buffer.