scanf("%[^n]s", str) Vs gets(str) in C with Examples

gets()

gets is a more convenient method of reading a string of text containing whitespaces.
Unlike scanf(), it does not skip whitespaces.
It is used to read the input until it encounters newline.

Syntax:

gets(string);
where string-it is a string variable

Example:

#include <stdio.h>  
  
int main() 
{ 
    char name[50]; 
    gets(name); 
    printf("Entered name: %s", name); 
} 

Output:

Entered name: GFG

%[^\n]

It is an edit conversion code.
The edit conversion code %[^\n] can be used as an alternative of gets.
C supports this format specification with scanf() function.
This edit conversion code can be used to read a line containing characters like variables and even whitespaces.
In general scanf() function with format specification like %s and specification with the field width in the form of %ws can read-only strings till non-whitespace part.
It means they cannot be used for reading a text containing more than one word, especially with Whitespaces.

Syntax:

scanf("%[^\n]", variable_name);

Example:

#include <stdio.h>  
  
int main() 
{ 
    char name[50]; 
    scanf("%[^\n]", name); 
    printf("Entered name: %s", name); 
} 

Output:

Entered name: GFG

Table of difference between gets() and %[^\n]

gets()	%[^\n]
gets() is used to read strings	%[^\n] is an edit conversion code used to read strings
Unlike scanf(), gets() reads strings even with whitespaces	%[^\n] also terminates with a newline character
when it reads a newline character then the gets() function will be terminated	%[^\n] also reads strings with whitespaces

My Personal Notes

Recommended Posts:

akshararajan26

Check out this Author's contributed articles.

If you like GeeksforGeeks and would like to contribute, you can also write an article using contribute.geeksforgeeks.org or mail your article to contribute@geeksforgeeks.org. See your article appearing on the GeeksforGeeks main page and help other Geeks.

Please Improve this article if you find anything incorrect by clicking on the "Improve Article" button below.