Programming in C

Variable-Length Character Strings 207

If s1,s2,and s3are defined to be character arrays of appropriate sizes, execution of
the statement

scanf ("%s%s%s", s1, s2, s3);

with the line of text

micro computer system

results in the assignment of the string "micro"to s1,"computer"to s2,and "system"
to s3. If the following line of text is typed instead:

system expansion

it results in the assignment of the string "system"to s1,and "expansion"to s2.
Because no further characters appear on the line, the scanffunction then waits for more
input to be entered from your terminal window.
In Program 10.5,scanfis used to read three character strings.

Program 10.5 Reading Strings with scanf

// Program to illustrate the %s scanf format characters

#include <stdio.h>

int main (void)
{
char s1[81], s2[81], s3[81];

printf ("Enter text:\n");

scanf ("%s%s%s", s1, s2, s3);

printf ("\ns1 = %s\ns2 = %s\ns3 = %s\n", s1, s2, s3);
return 0;
}

Program 10.5 Output

Enter text:
system expansion
bus

s1 = system
s2 = expansion
s3 = bus