Need help with problem

[Scott]

Hi,

a problem with this following code is really bugging me.

tform = fopen(country, "r");

fseek(tform, 9L, SEEK_SET);
fgets(player2, 38, tform);
printf("Player Name (save): %s", player);
printf("Player Name (form): %s", player2);
fseek(tform, 10L, SEEK_CUR);
fgets(country2, 38, tform);
printf("Country Name (save); %s", country);
printf("Country Name (form): %s", country2);
fseek(tform, 18L, SEEK_CUR);
fscanf(tform, "%i \n", &app_budget) ;
fseek(tform, 16L, SEEK_CUR);
fscanf(tform, "%i \n", &hea_budget) ;
fseek(tform, 19L, SEEK_CUR);
fscanf(tform, "%i \n", &edu_budget) ;
fseek(tform, 18L, SEEK_CUR);
fscanf(tform, "%i \n", &sec_budget) ;
fseek(tform, 16L, SEEK_CUR);
fscanf(tform, "%i \n", &soc_budget) ;
fseek(tform, 17L, SEEK_CUR);
fscanf(tform, "%i \n", &eco_budget) ;
fseek(tform, 11L, SEEK_CUR);
fscanf(tform, "%i", &tax_change) ;

When I run the code as written above it will compile without errors,
but when I run the program I get a "Segmentati on fault (core dumped)"
error. But, if I switch the country variable in the Fopen to
"Canada" (the value of the variable) it opens the file called Canada
fine and works perfectly. I know the variable is Canada as I had a
printf function write the value of the variable and it says "Canada".

To make things even more weird if I comment out all the above code
except the fopen with the variable it will not show the error. So, it
seems it can read the file, but can not do anything with it.

What I am trying to do is have a while loop that completes turns for a
PBEM. I have the while loop working great going though the list of
players one by one and stopping at the end of the file, but I need
this code above to load the turn sheet for each of the players. I
could use several "if"s to load the files, but that would mean I would
need to re-write the code and re-compile whenever I have a change in
players.

Any advice on how to fix this would be greatly appretiated. I am very
new to C and a all-round programming novice, so, please dum down any
help :)

--
Your friend,
Scott

Sent to you from a 100% Linux computer using Kubuntu Version 7.04
(Feisty Fawn)

[Chris Dollin]

Scott wrote:

Hi,

a problem with this following code is really bugging me.

tform = fopen(country, "r");

Check that the file open succeeded.

fseek(tform, 9L, SEEK_SET);
fgets(player2, 38, tform);
printf("Player Name (save): %s", player);
printf("Player Name (form): %s", player2);
fseek(tform, 10L, SEEK_CUR);
fgets(country2, 38, tform);
printf("Country Name (save); %s", country);
printf("Country Name (form): %s", country2);
fseek(tform, 18L, SEEK_CUR);
fscanf(tform, "%i \n", &app_budget) ;

Check that exactly one item is converted.

fseek(tform, 16L, SEEK_CUR);
fscanf(tform, "%i \n", &hea_budget) ;
fseek(tform, 19L, SEEK_CUR);
fscanf(tform, "%i \n", &edu_budget) ;
fseek(tform, 18L, SEEK_CUR);
fscanf(tform, "%i \n", &sec_budget) ;
fseek(tform, 16L, SEEK_CUR);
fscanf(tform, "%i \n", &soc_budget) ;
fseek(tform, 17L, SEEK_CUR);
fscanf(tform, "%i \n", &eco_budget) ;
fseek(tform, 11L, SEEK_CUR);
fscanf(tform, "%i", &tax_change) ;

Oh my goodness.

Why, oh why, all these magic numbers and fseeks? What's the
layout of the file supposed to be, and why is it so dependent
on fixed formats?

It looks like ... a player name, a country name, six budgets,
and a tax change. Why not expect nine lines like this:

player: their name
country: its name
app-budget: number
(etc)

`fgets` each line in turn, check that the tag is what you expect,
and the extract the information from the rest of that line. No
`fseeks` and the file is now self-documenting. (And easier to
test -- because now the test data doesn't include a FILE* and
a position, just a string for the line and the expected value of
the item.)

When I run the code as written above it will compile without errors,
but when I run the program I get a "Segmentati on fault (core dumped)"
error. But, if I switch the country variable in the Fopen to
"Canada" (the value of the variable) it opens the file called Canada
fine and works perfectly. I know the variable is Canada as I had a
printf function write the value of the variable and it says "Canada".

Always aim to show real, complete (but trimmed to minimal) code.
If you don't understand the problem, you don't know what's safe
to leave out.

--
JUC 2007, submit: http://hpl.hp.com/conferences/juc2007/submission.html
"Our future looks secure, but it's all out of our hands." /Man and Machine/
- Magenta

Hewlett-Packard Limited Cain Road, Bracknell, registered no:
registered office: Berks RG12 1HN 690597 England

[gw7rib]

On 29 Mar, 12:58, "Scott" <scle...@gmail. comwrote:

Hi,

a problem with this following code is really bugging me.

tform = fopen(country, "r");

fseek(tform, 9L, SEEK_SET);
fgets(player2, 38, tform);

<snip>

When I run the code as written above it will compile without errors,
but when I run the program I get a "Segmentati on fault (core dumped)"
error. But, if I switch the country variable in the Fopen to
"Canada" (the value of the variable) it opens the file called Canada
fine and works perfectly. I know the variable is Canada as I had a
printf function write the value of the variable and it says "Canada".

To make things even more weird if I comment out all the above code
except the fopen with the variable it will not show the error. So, it
seems it can read the file, but can not do anything with it.

Guessing wildly, I would guess that there is some subtle difference
between the actual value of the variable and what you think it is. A
control character, perhaps. As Chris has said, you ought to check
whether the fopen succeeded. If it opens with a literal and doesn't
open with a variable then the variable probably has the wrong value.
Try doing a strcmp to check.

One possible problem (I'm guessing even more wildly here) may be that
you are using backslashes wrongly in your code. For example,

fopen("\nations \turkey", "r");

will not work - the name has an enter and a tab in it. You would need:

fopen("\\nation s\\turkey", "r");

or

fopen("/nations/turkey", "r");

Hope this is useful.
Paul.

[Scott]

On Mar 29, 8:48 am, Chris Dollin <chris.dol...@h p.comwrote:

Why, oh why, all these magic numbers and fseeks? What's the
layout of the file supposed to be, and why is it so dependent
on fixed formats?

I am trying to have the program read text from a html form; something
I allready dud sucessfully earlier in the program. The format of the
text form is below.

Player = Scott Lewin
Country = Canada
Approval Budget = 1000
Health Budget = 1000
Education Budget = 1000
Security Budget = 1000
Social Budget = 1000
Economy Budget = 1000
Tax Rate = 1

>
It looks like ... a player name, a country name, six budgets,
and a tax change.

That is exactly correct.

`fgets` each line in turn, check that the tag is what you expect,
and the extract the information from the rest of that line. No
`fseeks` and the file is now self-documenting.

I apologize for being such a newbie, but how do I do this?

Always aim to show real, complete (but trimmed to minimal) code.
If you don't understand the problem, you don't know what's safe
to leave out.

Okay, that makes sense. I have added the complete section of code
below without the debugging I added in.

void turn(void)
{
FILE *mfile;
FILE *clist;
FILE *cfile;
FILE *tform;
char country[40];
char country2[40];
char player[40];
char player2[40];
char player_lng[50];
int i;
int type;
int phil;
int approval;
int health;
int education;
int security;
int social;
int economy;
int population;
int size;
int tax;
int funds;
int app_budget;
int hea_budget;
int edu_budget;
int sec_budget;
int soc_budget;
int eco_budget;
int tax_change;

clist = fopen("./master_files/clist", "r");

while(!feof(cli st))
{
fgets(player, 38, clist);

cfile = fopen(player, "r+");

fscanf(cfile, "%[^/]/ %[^/]/ %i/ %i/ %i/ %i/ %i/ %i/ %i/ %i/ %i/ %i/
%i/ %i", player_lng, country, &type, &phil, &approval, &health,
&education, &security, &social, &economy, &population, &size, &tax,
&funds);
printf("Country : %s", country);
tform = fopen(country, "r");

fseek(tform, 9L, SEEK_SET);
fgets(player2, 38, tform);
printf("Player Name (save): %s", player);
printf("Player Name (form): %s", player2);
fseek(tform, 10L, SEEK_CUR);
fgets(country2, 38, tform);
printf("Country Name (save); %s", country);
printf("Country Name (form): %s", country2);
fseek(tform, 18L, SEEK_CUR);
fscanf(tform, "%i \n", &app_budget) ;
fseek(tform, 16L, SEEK_CUR);
fscanf(tform, "%i \n", &hea_budget) ;
fseek(tform, 19L, SEEK_CUR);
fscanf(tform, "%i \n", &edu_budget) ;
fseek(tform, 18L, SEEK_CUR);
fscanf(tform, "%i \n", &sec_budget) ;
fseek(tform, 16L, SEEK_CUR);
fscanf(tform, "%i \n", &soc_budget) ;
fseek(tform, 17L, SEEK_CUR);
fscanf(tform, "%i \n", &eco_budget) ;
fseek(tform, 11L, SEEK_CUR);
fscanf(tform, "%i", &tax_change) ;
}

fclose(clist);
}

[Scott]

On Mar 29, 4:34 pm, [e-mail] wrote:

Guessing wildly, I would guess that there is some subtle difference
between the actual value of the variable and what you think it is. A
control character, perhaps. As Chris has said, you ought to check
whether the fopen succeeded.

I added in the following line of code and, unless I did it wrong,
there is an error in opening the file as I got the text "Cannot open
turn form".

if ((tform = fopen(country, "r")) == NULL)
{
printf("Cannot open turn form");
return;
}

Try doing a strcmp to check.

One possible problem (I'm guessing even more wildly here) may be that
you are using backslashes wrongly in your code. For example,

To make things simple I am trying just to read the file from the same
folder as the program. Also, I'm on a Linux system, so I allways use
the / slash.

Your friend,
Scott

[Scott]

On Mar 29, 4:34 pm, [e-mail] wrote:

Try doing a strcmp to check.

Thanks to the list I am slowly getting closer to the problem. I used
the strcmp command and found out that the variable is not what it
should be.

Your friend,
Scott

[Scott]

On Mar 29, 4:34 pm, [e-mail] wrote:

Try doing a strcmp to check.

Thanks to the list I am slowly getting closer to the problem. I used
the strcmp command and found out that the variable is not what it
should be.

Your friend,
Scott

[Scott]

On Mar 29, 4:34 pm, [e-mail] wrote:

Try doing a strcmp to check.

Thanks to the list I am slowly getting closer to the problem. I used
the strcmp command and found out that the variable is not what it
should be.

Your friend,
Scott

[CBFalconer]

Scott wrote:

>
a problem with this following code is really bugging me.

tform = fopen(country, "r");
fseek(tform, 9L, SEEK_SET);
fgets(player2, 38, tform);
printf("Player Name (save): %s", player);
printf("Player Name (form): %s", player2);
fseek(tform, 10L, SEEK_CUR);
fgets(country2, 38, tform);
printf("Country Name (save); %s", country);
printf("Country Name (form): %s", country2);
fseek(tform, 18L, SEEK_CUR);
fscanf(tform, "%i \n", &app_budget) ;
fseek(tform, 16L, SEEK_CUR);
fscanf(tform, "%i \n", &hea_budget) ;
fseek(tform, 19L, SEEK_CUR);
fscanf(tform, "%i \n", &edu_budget) ;
fseek(tform, 18L, SEEK_CUR);
fscanf(tform, "%i \n", &sec_budget) ;
fseek(tform, 16L, SEEK_CUR);
fscanf(tform, "%i \n", &soc_budget) ;
fseek(tform, 17L, SEEK_CUR);
fscanf(tform, "%i \n", &eco_budget) ;
fseek(tform, 11L, SEEK_CUR);
fscanf(tform, "%i", &tax_change) ;

When I run the code as written above it will compile without errors,

Nonsense. When I compile the above code all I get is errors.

--
Chuck F (cbfalconer at maineline dot net)
Available for consulting/temporary embedded and systems.
<http://cbfalconer.home .att.net>

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

[Scott]

I think I know what the problem is now, I think it was the kind of
file. Is there certain type of Text files C can not read from?

What I did was re-save the file using a different text editor (Kate
instead of Kedit) and it worked perfectly.

Your friend,
Scott