Hey. Please help me find my mistake. The number of words in my sentences is not counted properly

Question

I tried using debugger but could not figure out where I went wrong. please help

#include <stdio.h>
#include <cs50.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <math.h>

int main(void)
{
    int letters = 0, words = 0, sentences = 0; 
    string text = get_string("Enter text:\n");
    for (int i = 0 ; text[i] != '\0'; i++)  //Loop to count letters words and sentences
    {
        if ((text[i] >= 'a' && text[i] <= 'z') || (text[i] >= 'A' && text[i] <= 'Z'))
        {
            letters++;
        }
        
        else if (text[i] == ' ' || text[i] == '\n' || text[i] == '\t')
        {
            words++;
        }
        else if (text[i] == '.' || text[i] == '!' || text[i] == '?')
        {
            sentences++;
        }
    }
    printf("Letters: %i\nWords: %i\nSentences: %i\n", letters, words, sentences);
    
    float L = ((float) letters / (float) words) * 100;
    printf("Average No. of letters: %f\n", L);
    float S = ((float) sentences / (float) words) * 100;
    printf("Average No. of sentences: %f\n", S);
    float grade = (0.0588 * L) - (0.296 * S) - 15.8;
    if (grade <= 16 && grade >= 0)
    {
        printf("Grade %i\n", (int) round(grade));
    }
    else if (grade > 16)
    {
        printf("Grade 16+\n");
    }
    else
    {
        printf("Before Grade 1\n");
    }

}

Answer 1

This is a good question and a case where very specific test data would quickly lead to the problem and a solution. It's a good demonstration why test data must be carefully thought out and tested! ;-)

One big clue is that the word count is always low by 1. Since you've said that you tried to figure it out using debugger, I'll give you credit for that. (So many people on this forum don't run their programs in the debugger and it's obvious.) This problem is doing a good job of hiding. I won't tell you what the problem is, but I'll point you in the right direction!

Is the LAST word being counted? What happens when the text ends with a period? Is the result different if the period is followed by a space instead of hitting the return key? What are the TWO chars that come at the end of every sentence (or should I say, between the end of one sentence and the start of the next.) How is that different with the end of the text?

Note that I'm ignoring the calculation errors (appear to be corrected in your edit), because if the raw counts aren't accurate, the calculations can't be debugged.

If this doesn't help, leave a comment and we'll revisit it. ;-)

If this answers your question, please click on the check mark to accept. Let's keep up on forum maintenance. ;-)

Answer 2

#include <stdio.h> #include <string.h> #include <math.h> #include <ctype.h>

int main(void)

{

char text[1000];
char* fgets(char *text, int length, FILE * stream);
puts("Enter text:");
fgets(text,sizeof(text),stdin);

int letters =  0, words = 0, sentences = 0, n = strlen(text);

//Loop to count letters words and sentences

for (int i = 0 ; i < n ; i ++)
{
    if (isalpha(text[i]))
    {
        letters++;
    }
    else if (text[i] == ' ' && (text[i - 1] != '!' && text[i - 1] != '?' && text[i - 1] != '.'))
    {
        words++;
    }
    else if (text[i] == '.' || text[i] == '!' || text[i] == '?')
    {
        sentences++;
        words++;
    }
}

printf("\nLetters: %i\nWords: %i\nSentences: %i\n", letters, words, sentences);

// Coleman-Liau index computation

float L = (letters / (float) words) * 100;
printf("Average No. of letters: %f\n", L);
float S = (sentences / (float) words) * 100;
printf("Average No. of sentences: %f\n", S);
float index = round(0.0588 * L - 0.296 * S - 15.8);

if (index < 1)
{
    printf("Before Grade 1\n");
}
else if (index >= 16)
{
    printf("Grade 16+\n");
}
else
{
    printf("Grade %i\n", (int) index);
}

}