pset2 caesar converting from ascii to alphabetical

Question

#include <stdio.h>
#include <cs50.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <ctype.h>

int main(int argc, string argv[])
{
    if (argc == 2)
    {
        int n = atoi(argv[1]);

        printf("plaintext: ");
        string s = get_string();
        printf("ciphertext: ");

        for (int i = 0, j = strlen(s); i < j ; i++)
        {
            if (isalpha(s[i]))
            {
                if (isupper(s[i]))
                {
                    printf("%c", ((('s[i]' - 65) + n) % 26) + 65);
                }
                else
                {
                    printf("%c", ((('s[i]' - 97) + n) % 26) + 97);
                }
            }
        }
    }
    else
    {
        printf("Error!\n");
        return 1;
    }
    printf("\n");
    return 0;
}

I am having difficulty with the part in the caesar cipher part where I have to convert the ascii index to alphabetical index. I spent a long time trying to figure out why the formula won't work. The code compiles and runs fine. But, if my key is 5, and I were to input "hello", then all I would get are five lots of v's ("vvvvv"). If I input "HELLO", I would get give lots of B's ("BBBBB").

It is most likely wrong, but here's is my understanding of it: taking "hello" for example, h would have ascii index of 104. Firstly, since i = 0, we deal with "h", since it is a lower case, the following would run:

printf("%c", ((('s[i]' - 97) + n) % 26) + 97);

so, the int of s[i] would be 104, right? ((104-97)+5) % 26 = 12. Add back on the 97, I would get 109. printf the char of that should get me a lowercase m?

Could someone please correct me on my way of understanding this, and maybe provide a workaround for this. Thank you.

Answer 1

Your formula is correct as well as the understanding of the formula, only that you are mixing two things in a wrong way, look carefully at the following expression:

((('s[i]' - 97) + n) % 26) + 97)

What is s[i], and what is 's[i]'? I have to say that it is the first time that I encounter this situation, probably 's[i]' is interpreted by the compiler as a string, instead of a character, since it does not appear as an error, we can do for example 'A', in the program that will be interpreted as a character, and internally it will be treated as an integer, but we can not do 's[i]' and expect it to be a character Your program will work perfectly if you do:

(((s[i] - 97) + n) % 26) + 97)

Answer 2

Preferebly, you should go for explicit casting which casts a one data type to another. That is you can (int) function to convert from the string charachter s[i] to its ascii value . After this you can apply the rest of the formula in same way as above .Happy coding!