Last month’s Exercise demonstrated a filename-extractor, but it cheated: The filename was always the same: same text, same length. That’s not always the case in the real world.
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Filename Extractor
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Author Archives: dgookin
Sorted List Presentation, Part V
The process of converting the sample program from one that relies upon constants to one that exclusively uses variables is nearly complete. Only two steps are left:
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Sorted List Presentation, Part IV
Last week’s Lesson accomplished the task of obtaining the number of elements in the fruit[] array. This week, the task is to obtain the next item, the widest string in the array. This item is currently a constant, but it must become a variable to ensure the code’s flexibility.
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Sorted List Presentation, Part III
Once you accept that a program’s data set is flexible, you must abandon all constants and use variables. It’s a good move: The variables ensure that no matter what changes with the data, the code can handle it.
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Right String – Solution
For this month’s Exercise, I offer both a string function solution as well as a solution that uses pointers. As you can guess, I thought of the string method first, which is where most programmers would run to avoid the dratted topic of pointers.
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Sorted List Presentation, Part II
It’s easy to code single-column list output. It takes a bit more programming skill to present the list in columns. To sort the list by columns is the most difficult. Like many programming tasks, it’s one of those things that once you figure it out, you just keep stealing your own code to do it again and again.
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Right String
A recent web page programming puzzle reminded me of an old BASIC language function, RIGHT$. The “right-string” function returns the rightmost n characters from a string. Such a function would have helped me greatly in my web page programming task.
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Sorted List Presentation, Part I
Sometimes programming can be a snap, especially when you have a known data set and pretty much all the values are static. You can whip out code right away, it runs well and looks beautiful — but that’s because everything is known. The fewer variables, the easier to code.
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Structures of Pointer Structures in Structures
Nested structures present another opportunity for pointers to growl in your code. The struggle is knowing which structure member operator to use — and where.
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Pointers on Pointers in Structures
Structures are the complex variable type in C, allowing you to craft data-rich units for storing and retrieving all sorts of interesting information. They’re fun! But like asterisks falling as snowflakes, sprinkle some pointers into a structure and you can get into trouble fast.
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