Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!lll-winken!uunet!auspex!guy
From: guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: learning c
Keywords: getchar()
Message-ID: <1384@auspex.auspex.com>
Date: 4 Apr 89 09:24:31 GMT
References: <1091@bnlux0.bnl.gov> <584@greens.UUCP>
Reply-To: guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Auspex Systems, Santa Clara
Lines: 30

>    I know your problem well.  What you are looking for is a 'getch()' or
>'getche()' function in place of the 'getchar()' function.

Huh?  What would those functions do?  They're not in the ANSI C standad
nor are they in any UNIX C library.  If they're a PCism, note that
plenty of C programs have never programmed on a PC and, as such, may not
be familiar with them.

>Barring that try
>
>c = getchar();
>fflush(stdin);
>
>    The variable 'c' will get the first character of input, and the remainder
>of the line (plus the newline) will get flushed away.

Bad idea, as Rahul Dhesi has already pointed out:

	1) "fflush(stdin)" is not guaranteed to flush input on all
	   implementations;

	2) even if it does do so on your implementation, it may or may
	   not stop at the end of the line in all cases.

Much better to *read* the rest of the line, as in Rahul's posting.  Not
only is it portable, it's the right thing to do - flushing input is
generally an action taken on an error, not something you do as a matter
of course unless you want to make *sure* somebody hasn't typed something
ahead that they'll regret (cf. "rn", which does flush input for
precisely that reason).