[Martin]

This question ended up on one of my exams for my CS class, however, I was wondering what the correct way is to accomplish it.

Basically I need to write a function that takes in a name string (takes in a string as an argument), say for example, in the form of "First Middle Last" and the function rearranges it in "Last First M." format. (For the sake of simplicity, let's ignore names that have more than two spaces).

Here's what I have down so far, and after the last part is where I got lost. (heck, i'm not even sure if I even need to count the number of spaces). I recall using a similar method on a lab assignment, however, I can't remember it exactly at the moment.

void sortName(char name[])
{
   int i, count = 0;
   char temp[100] = 0;
   
   for(i = 0; i < strlen(name); i ++)
   {
      if(name[i] == ' ')
      {
         count ++;
         strncpy(temp, name, i);
      }
   }
}

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

[TheHeadFL]

Here is what I would do:

void sortName(char name[])
{
  int i;
  int temppos = 0;
  int position = 0;

  char first[100];
  char middle[100];
  char last[100];
  char newname[100];
  char **current;

  current = &first;

  for (i = 0; i < strlen(name); i ++)
  {
    if (name[i] == ' ')
    {
      position++;
      **current[temppos] = '\0';
      temppos = 0;
      if (position == 1)
      {
        current = &middle;
      }
      if (position == 2)
      {
        current = &last;
      }
      continue;
    }
    **current[temppos] = name[i];
    temppos++;
  }
  **current[temppos] = '\0';
  strcpy(newname, last);
  strcat(newname, " ");
  strcat(newname, first);
  strcat(newname, " ");
  strcat(newname, (char *)middle[0]);
  strcat(newname, ".");  // newname now contains the desired output
}

[Martin]

Thanks, greatly appreciated. Hmm, never would have thought of that..... I guess that's why I'm not a computer scientist or software engineer.

[Chankama]

Well without going through all the code, and writing my own code, I would imaging the following standard functions would be useful ..

strtok
strcat

I would imagine, you can write the program in about 12 lines. Extract the string tokens and then rearrange them.

http://www.cplusplus.com/ref/cstring/strtok.html
http://www.cplusplus.com/ref/cstring/strcat.html

[time_come_back]

Originally posted by TheHeadFL
Here is what I would do:

void sortName(char name[])
{
  int i;
  int temppos = 0;
  int position = 0;

  char first[100];
  char middle[100];
  char last[100];
  char newname[100];
  char **current;

  current = &first;

  for (i = 0; i < strlen(name); i ++)
  {
    if (name[i] == ' ')
    {
      position++;
      **current[temppos] = '\0';
      temppos = 0;
      if (position == 1)
      {
        current = &middle;
      }
      if (position == 2)
      {
        current = &last;
      }
      continue;
    }
    **current[temppos] = name[i];
    temppos++;
  }
  **current[temppos] = '\0';
  strcpy(newname, last);
  strcat(newname, " ");
  strcat(newname, first);
  strcat(newname, " ");
  strcat(newname, (char *)middle[0]);
  strcat(newname, ".");  // newname now contains the desired output
}

I can't run your coding, it has many error

[TheHeadFL]

I never tried to compile it, I just typed it up.

You should be able to resolve any errors pretty easily.

[time_come_back]

But I have some confusion:
char **current;
......
current = & first;
......
**current[temppost] = '\0';

how come???

[TheHeadFL]

I dont even understand what youre asking me

[TheHeadFL]

I was mistaken about the amount of indirection needed. (Only one level instead of two, since its strings and strings are always indirected anyway)

This code works fine in my compiler:

void sortName(char name[])
{
  int i;
  int temppos = 0;
  int position = 0;
  int len = strlen(name);

  char first[100];
  char middle[100];
  char last[100];
  char newname[100];
  char *current;

  current = first;

  for (i = 0; i < len; i ++)
  {
    if (name[i] == ' ')
    {
      position++;
	  current[temppos] = '\0';
      temppos = 0;
      if (position == 1)
      {
        current = middle;
      }
      if (position == 2)
      {
        current = last;
      }
      continue;
    }
    current[temppos] = name[i];
    temppos++;
  }
  current[temppos] = '\0';
  strcpy(newname, last);
  strcat(newname, " ");
  strcat(newname, first);
  strcat(newname, " ");
  middle[1] = '\0';
  strcat(newname, middle);
  strcat(newname, ".");  // newname now contains the desired output

  printf("Given Name: %s\n", name);
  printf("New Name: %s\n", newname);
}

[time_come_back]

Thanks, it seem better.
I have some confusion because **current is pointer of pointer or array of poiter or what else. And after that, it has the code like " current = &last " current is has ** and last is array so current = &last is imposible. But anyway, your code is now better. It looks professional (@_+)