Finding smallest and largest string

[crystal2005]

I am writing a program that receive maximum of 25 line of string each has 20 characters maximum. The program will print the smallest and the largest string. However the following program gives me Segmentation fault (core dumped) :(( It looks simple but i have no idea what went wrong....

Can anyone help me out??

#include<stdio.h>
#include<stdlib.h>
#include<string.h>
 
#define MAX_INPUT 25
#define MAX_CHAR 20
 
int main(void)
{
    int t, i, j;
 
    char text[MAX_INPUT][MAX_CHAR];
 
    char smallest[0][MAX_CHAR], largest[0][MAX_CHAR];
 
    printf("Enter 4 characters to quit. \n");
 
    for(t=0; t<MAX_INPUT; t++)
    {
        printf("Enter word %d: ", t);
        gets(text[t]);
        if(strlen(text[t])==4) break;
    }
 
 
    for(i=0; i<t; i++)
    {
        for(j=0; text[i][j]; j++)
        {
                if(text[i][j]<smallest[0][MAX_CHAR])
                {
                    text[i][j]=smallest[0][MAX_CHAR];
                }
                if(text[i][j]>largest[0][MAX_CHAR])
                {
                    text[i][j]=largest[0][MAX_CHAR];
                }
        }
    }
 
    printf("Smallest word: %s\n", smallest[0][MAX_CHAR]);
    printf("Largest word: %s\n", largest[0][MAX_CHAR]);
 
    return EXIT_SUCCESS;
} 
 

[JosAH]

You don't have to remember all those strings; all you have to remember are the smallest and largest strings so far. After having read the first string that string is the smalles and largest string so far.

kind regards,

Jos

[crystal2005]

@JosAH
Sorry Jos, what do you mean the first string is the smallest and largest string so far??

[JosAH]

@crystal2005
Suppose you haven't read any strings yet; you don't know what the smallest or largest strings so far are; suppose you have read one string; it has to be the smallest and largest string read so far.

kind regards,

Jos

[newb16]

text[i][j]=smallest[0][MAX_CHAR];

What do you try to accomplish here?

[crystal2005]

@newb16
I want to store the smallest array of string. But the code doesn't seem that way.

[newb16]

char largest[0][MAX_CHAR] is a wrong way to store string - sizeof(largest) on my machine returns 0, because it's an array of zero arrays of N chars. However largest[0][MAX_CHAR] is located at 25 bytes from its beginning, overlapping some other variable. Also, you never assign anything to 'smallest' but print it after all.

[crystal2005]

After trying for quite sometime, it does work... but my code only take one character comparison in front. Any suggestion to compare probably up to 2 or 3 characters for each string??

#include<stdio.h>
#include<stdlib.h>
#include<string.h>
 
#define MAX_INPUT 25
#define MAX_CHAR 20
 
int main(void)
{
    int t, i;
 
    char text[MAX_INPUT][MAX_CHAR];    
 
    char* largestString;
    char* smallestString;
    unsigned int largestStringASCII;
    unsigned int smallestStringASCII;
 
    unsigned int largestValue = 0;
    unsigned int smallestValue = 127;    //ASCII max No.
 
    printf("Enter 4 characters to quit. \n");
 
    for(t=0; t<MAX_INPUT; t++)
    {
        printf("Enter word %d: ", t);
        gets(text[t]);
        if(strlen(text[t])==4) break;
    }
 
 
    for(i=0; i<=t; i++)
    {        
        largestStringASCII = text[i][0];
        if(largestStringASCII>largestValue)
        {
            largestValue = largestStringASCII;
            largestString = text[i];
        }
    }
 
    for(i=0; i<=t; i++)
    {
        smallestStringASCII = text[i][0];
        if(smallestStringASCII<smallestValue)
        {
            smallestValue = smallestStringASCII;
            smallestString = text[i];
        }
    }
 
    printf("Smallest word: %s\n", smallestString);
    printf("Largest word: %s\n", largestString);
 
    return EXIT_SUCCESS;
} 
 

[JosAH]

Why don't you use the strcmp( ... ) function? It was made for these purposes.

kind regards,

Jos