string array with garbage character at end

Question

I have a char array buffer that I am using to store characters that the user will input one by one. My code below works but has a few glitches that I can\'t figure out:

Answer 1

The only thing you are passing to the printf() function is a pointer to the first character of your string. printf() has no way of knowing the size of your array. (It doesn't even know if it's an actual array, since a pointer is just a memory address.)

printf() and all the standard c string functions assume that there is a 0 at the end of your string. printf() for example will keep printing characters in memory, starting at the char that you pass to the function, until it hits a 0.

Therefore you should change your code to something like this:

char Buffer[9]; //holds the byte stream
int i=0;

if( //user input event has occured ) 
{
        Buffer[i] = charInput;
        i++;

        Buffer[i] = 0; // You can also assign the char '\0' to it to get the same result.

        // Display a response to input
        printf("Buffer is %s!\n", Buffer);

}