C - Write program to read a string terminated by an arbitrary character

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  3. Console Input
  4. String Input

Requirements

Define a function using the getchar() function.

It will read a string from stdin terminated by a character.

The termination character is passed as the third argument to the function.

The prototype will be the following: 

char *getString(char *buffer, size_t buffer, char end_char);

The return value is the pointer passed as the first argument.

Demo

#define __STDC_WANT_LIB_EXT1__ 1
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>

#define MAX_SIZE     100//from   w w  w . j a  v  a  2  s .  c  o m
#define STRING_COUNT   5

char* getString(char *buffer, size_t buffer_size, char end_char);

int main(void)
{
  char buffer[MAX_SIZE] = {0};
  int i = 0;
  for(i = 0 ; i < STRING_COUNT ; ++i)
  {
    printf_s("\nEnter a string terminated by a semi-colon:\n");
    if(!getString(buffer, MAX_SIZE,  ':'))
    {
      printf_s("Error return but continuing...\n");
      continue;
    }
    printf_s("The string you entered was:\n%s\n", buffer);
  }
}

char* getString(char *buffer, size_t size, char end_char)
{
  size_t i = 0;
  // Read a character until end_char is entered
  while((buffer[i++] = getchar()) != end_char){
    if(i >= size)
    {
      printf_s("Buffer capacity exceeded.\n");
      return NULL;
    }
  }
  fflush(stdin);      
  buffer[i-1] = '\0';   // Overwrite end_char with string terminator
  return buffer;
}

Result