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From: scott@ncifcrf.gov (Michael Scott)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Summary: Removing excess characters from input stream
Message-ID: <2097@fcs280s.ncifcrf.gov>
Date: 22 Mar 91 12:46:00 GMT
Sender: news@ncifcrf.gov
Distribution: na
Organization: NCI Supercomputer Facility, Frederick, MD
Lines: 46


Here's a quick solution to my question regarding blowing away excess 
characters unneeded by a program.  

I was insistent thinking that there would be a library call to flush stdin.  
Well no one referred me to a library call that could do that job -- and I 
could not find one.

This solution is from John Hascall.  It's simple and it works!!

> void get_string(string,length,prompt)
>  char *string; int length; char *prompt;
> 
> {
>  fprintf(stdout,prompt);
>  if ((fgets(string,length,stdin)) == (char *)NULL)
>   {
>    string[0] = '\0';
>    fprintf(stdout,"\n");
>    clearerr(stdin);
>   }
>  else
#ifdef YOURS
>   string[strlen(string) -1 ] = '\0';  /* blow away the <cr> */
>  fflush(stdin);
#endif
#ifdef MINE
    if (string[strlen(string) - 1] == '\n') {
        /*
         * got the newline, blow it away
         */
        string[strlen(string) - 1] = '\0';
    } else {
         /*
          * no newline, read 'till we find it
          */
         do {} while (getc(stdin) != '\n');
    }
#endif
> }

-- 
_____________________________________________________________________________

	Name:		Michael Scott
        Title:  	Sr. Systems Manager