Difference between scanf() and fgets()

There are multiple differences. Two crucial ones are:

  • fgets() can read from any open file, but scanf() only reads standard input.
  • fgets() reads ‘a line of text’ from a file; scanf() can be used for that but also handles conversions from string to built in numeric types.

Many people will use fgets() to read a line of data and then use sscanf() to dissect it.

Related Posts:

  1. Why is the gets function so dangerous that it should not be used?
  2. Why do I get an assertion failure?
  3. How to read from stdin with fgets()?
  4. Reading a string with scanf
  5. Scanning Multiple inputs from one line using scanf
  6. Removing trailing newline character from fgets() input
  7. Difference between fgets and fscanf?
  8. how use EOF stdin in C
  9. Reaching EOF with fgets
  10. How to read from input until newline is found using scanf()?
  11. What causes a segmentation fault (core dump) to occur in C?
  12. uint8_t vs unsigned char
  13. How to use symbols of extended ASCII table in C?
  14. What is the difference between ++i and i++?
  15. Using boolean values in C
  16. What does “collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status” mean?
  17. typedef struct vs struct definitions [duplicate]
  18. What can be the reasons of connection refused errors?
  19. typedef struct vs struct definitions [duplicate]
  20. What is newline character — ‘\n’
  21. Why does ENOENT mean “No such file or directory”?
  22. Cannot figure out how to use getchar(); in C
  23. Why am I getting “void value not ignored as it ought to be”?
  24. 1 = false and 0 = true?
  25. c stack smashing detected
  26. char *array and char array[]
  27. Convert char to int in C and C++
  28. Get a substring of a char*
  29. What causes the Broken Pipe Error?
  30. Strings and character with printf
  31. Why does the terminal show “^[[A” “^[[B” “^[[C” “^[[D” when pressing the arrow keys in Ubuntu?
  32. Write to .txt file?
  33. What does “collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status” mean?
  34. Warning comparison between pointer and integer
  35. What does #pragma once mean in C? [duplicate]
  36. Using ssize_t vs int
  37. Why a warning of “control reaches end of non-void function” for the main function?
  38. Connect: Socket operation on non-socket
  39. “Initializer element is not constant” in C
  40. How do you do exponentiation in C?
  41. Printing long int value in C
  42. Undefined reference to pow( ) in C, despite including math.h [duplicate]
  43. C read file line by line
  44. No Symbol Table using GDB on Compiled Programs
  45. Try catch statements in C
  46. What is char ** in C?
  47. How do I create an array of strings in C?
  48. What is a bus error? Is it different from a segmentation fault?
  49. Get the current time in C
  50. Going through a text file line by line in C
  51. where does stdio.o live in linux machine?
  52. Get text from user input using C
  53. Using Dynamic Memory allocation for arrays
  54. How do I lowercase a string in C?
  55. warning: expression result unused
  56. conflicting types error when compiling c program using gcc
  57. Get the current time in C
  58. error: indirection requires pointer operand (‘int’ invalid)
  59. What is a file with extension .a?
  60. What is the difference between exit(0) and exit(1) in C?
  61. What does “%.*s” mean in printf?
  62. error: indirection requires pointer operand (‘int’ invalid)
  63. Finding the length of a Character Array in C
  64. Return char[]/string from a function
  65. Valgrind: Invalid read of size 1
  66. How to print a char array in C through printf?
  67. How to clear all the elements of array in C?
  68. Zero an array in C code
  69. Excess elements in char array initializer error
  70. Encrypt with private key and decrypt with public key
  71. strcmp giving segmentation fault
  72. What does “pointer being freed was not allocated” mean exactly?
  73. strcmp not working
  74. How to use timer in C?
  75. C char* to int conversion
  76. What is the difference between stdin and STDIN_FILENO?
  77. Allocating string with malloc
  78. How to simply convert a float to a string in c?
  79. What is the difference between char array and char pointer in C?
  80. hash function for string
  81. What happens during a “relocation has invalid symbol index” error?
  82. Does C have a string type?
  83. How to find EOF through fscanf?
  84. What are .axf files?
  85. Error: “Access not within mapped region at address” (Valgrind)
  86. printf format specifiers for uint32_t and size_t
  87. How to convert string to float?
  88. What is an simple example of copy_from_user
  89. What is `S_ISREG()`, and what does it do?
  90. typedef struct pointer definition
  91. How does the fscanf function work?
  92. Math constant PI value in C
  93. The code does not execute properly. Try to figure out why
  94. ld.exe: cannot open output file … : Permission denied
  95. getline() vs. fgets(): Control memory allocation
  96. What is char ** in C? [duplicate]
  97. segmentation fault using scanf
  98. Segmentation fault- strcat
  99. Reading float using scanf in c
  100. segmentation fault with strcpy [duplicate]

Leave a Comment