[FIXED] How to use printf() and scanf() in C without going to the next line?

Issue

I want to get date of birth in one line:

#include <stdio.h>

int main()
{
    int BirthYear,BirthMonth,BirthDay;
    printf("Please enter your birth date: ");
    scanf("%d",&BirthYear);
    printf("/");
    scanf("%d",&BirthMonth);
    printf("/");
    scanf("%d",&BirthDay);
    return 0;
}

This is my output:

Please enter your birth date: YYYY
/MM
/DD

But I want to get something like this:

Please enter your birth date: YYYY/MM/DD

In output, it goes to next line after each scanf() without using \n. I use VS Code for IDM.

Solution

Here is a workaround using ansi control characters. I would not do like this, but just to show that it is possible:

#define PREVLINE "\033[F"
#define MSG "Please enter your birth date: "

int main(void) {
    int BirthYear,BirthMonth,BirthDay;
    
    printf(MSG);
    scanf("%d",&BirthYear);
    printf(PREVLINE MSG "%d/", BirthYear);
    scanf("%d",&BirthMonth);
    printf(PREVLINE MSG "%d/%d/", BirthYear, BirthMonth);
    scanf("%d",&BirthDay);
    printf("You entered: %d/%d/%d\n", BirthYear, BirthMonth, BirthDay);
}

Please note that this is not portable. The terminal needs to support this in order to work. AFAIK there's no 100% portable way to achieve this.

If you want to do this stuff for real, then I recommend taking a look at the ncurses library

Note:

Always check the return value for scanf to detect errors.

Note2:

It may be a good idea to add fflush(stdout); after each printf statement.

I actually wrote another answer today about ascii control characters. It might be interesting: https://stackoverflow.com/a/64549313/6699433

Answered By - klutt

Answer Checked By - Robin (PHPFixing Admin)