Finding derivative of a function stored in a character array

Question

What I need to do is read a file which contains equations. I need to take the derivative of each equation and then write those derivative equations in a different .txt file. I\'

Answer 1

What you're really asking for is a parser. A parser is basically a set of rules to read those equations and change/read (parse) each of them. I'd try to iterate over each line of the file, and differentiate it considering you have a specific character set (i.e ^ means power, x is the parameter, etc.);

For example, some pseudo code:

Open the file.
While there's lines to read:
   Read a line - 
   Seperate it by the operands (+,-,/,*)
   For each part:
     Find the power of x,
     Reduce it by one,
     ...(derivating rules) // no way around, you have to implement each function if you want this to work as others mentioned in the comments.
   Reconnect the parts into a string,
   Add it to a list.
 Print each element of the list.

If you need help translating that into C, just ask for it; I'll happily help you.