Code for substring & int conversion

[qazmlp]

I have written the following code to extract the last 3 digits from a string.
Is there any improvement needed for this code?

-------------------
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

int main()
{
const char* nameWithID = "SOME_NAME_261" ;

char bufToHold3Digits[4] = {0} ;

strncpy( bufToHold3Digits , nameWithID + strlen( nameWithID ) - 3 , 3 ) ;

printf( "%d", atoi(bufToHold3Digits) ) ;
}
-------------------

[Nils O. Selåsdal]

On Tue, 26 Oct 2004 12:03:33 -0700, qazmlp wrote:

I have written the following code to extract the last 3 digits from a string.
Is there any improvement needed for this code? Not really. There would be amazingly many ways of achieving the same
though. If needed you might anticipate there to be more or less than 3
digits, e.g. an implementation would find the last '_' and take everything
from there to eol.

for just 3 digits, a shorter might be:
const char* nameWithID ="SOME_NAME_261";
const char *last3; last3 = nameWithID +(strlen(nameWithID)-3);
printf( "%d",atoi(last3));

-------------------
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

int main()
{
const char* nameWithID = "SOME_NAME_261" ;

char bufToHold3Digits[4] = {0} ;

strncpy( bufToHold3Digits , nameWithID + strlen( nameWithID ) - 3 , 3 ) ;

printf( "%d", atoi(bufToHold3Digits) ) ;
}
-------------------

[Eric Sosman]

qazmlp wrote:

I have written the following code to extract the last 3 digits from a string.
Is there any improvement needed for this code?

-------------------
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

int main()
{
const char* nameWithID = "SOME_NAME_261" ;

char bufToHold3Digits[4] = {0} ;

strncpy( bufToHold3Digits , nameWithID + strlen( nameWithID ) - 3 , 3 ) ;

printf( "%d", atoi(bufToHold3Digits) ) ;
}
-------------------

You are doing both too little and too much work.

The "too little" part refers to defensive coding:
your technique will fail on input like "SOME_NAME_26"
and will fail even worse on input like "42". To guard
against such possibilities, you should check that
strlen(nameWithID) >= 3, and you should replace atoi()
with strtod() and use the error-checking it provides.

The "too much" refers to all that silly copying.
You *know* you're copying a three-character string, so
why not use strcpy() instead of strncpy(), avoiding the
need to pre-initialize bufToHold3Digits[] (using a form
C.B.F. thinks ought not to work). Better yet, why not
get rid of bufToHold3Digits[] altogether, and simply
apply strtod() to the final three characters of the
input string, right where they are?

A still more general approach might convert an
arbitrary number of trailing digits, not necessarily
three, enabling you to make sense of "SOME_NAME_1234".
Whether the greater generality is an "improvement" or
not depends on the wider context of the problem.

--
Er*********@sun.com

[Malcolm]

"qazmlp" <qa********@rediffmail.com> wrote

I have written the following code to extract the last 3 digits from a string. Is there any improvement needed for this code?

-------------------
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

int main()
{
const char* nameWithID = "SOME_NAME_261" ;

char bufToHold3Digits[4] = {0} ;

strncpy( bufToHold3Digits , nameWithID + strlen( nameWithID ) - 3 , 3 ) ;
printf( "%d", atoi(bufToHold3Digits) ) ;
}

The most important thing is that code should be reusable. So you need to
make the process into a function.

/*
gets the last three digits of a string
Params: out - pointer to output (must be at least 4 characters long)
in - pointer to input string
Notes: As Eric Sosman pointed out, what happens if the input has less than
three characters? What if the last three characters are not decimal
digits.
What happens if you are passed NULL?
There are not necessarily any right answers to these questions, but
you
need to think about them.
*/
void last3digits(char *out, const char *in)
{
/* code goes here */
}

The other problem is that the test is lousy. You need to recompile for every
test.

Try this

int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
char buff[4];
if(argc == 2)
{
last3digits(buff, argv[1]);
printf("Last 3 digits %s\n", buff);
}
else
printf("Call with an argument string\n");

return 0;
}