Question

When searching for everything about getchar() function in this really great site, I found this post: Why doesn't getchar() wait for me to press enter after scanf()?

#include <stdio.h>

int main()
{
    int value;
    printf("1. option 1.\n2. option 2.\n3. option 3.\n4. Exit\n\nMake an option: ");
    scanf("%d", &value);
    switch (value)
    {
        case 1:
            printf("you selected the option 1.");
            break;
        case 2:
            printf("you selected the option 2.");
            break;
        case 3:
            printf("you selected the option 3.");
            break;
        case 4:
            printf("goodbye");
            break;
        default:
            printf("thats not an option");
            break;
    }
    getchar();//here is the question,why it's useful ?
    return 0;
}

I understand the whole program, and I understand that each time it is called, getchar reads the next input character from a text stream and returns that as its value. That is, after

c = getchar();

the variable c contains the next character of input. The characters normally come from the
keyboard.

But here is the question: why did the programmer call getchar() at the end of the program?

Answer 1

this practice is used especially for console applications, that way you force the program to not stop until you press a key so you can read the output. Usually the console closes when the program execution ends