Remove Extra Spaces Using String Concepts in C

Problem

Remove all the extra spaces from an entered string at runtime with the help of while loop by checking the spaces at each index of a character.

Solution

Consider an example given below −

It removes all the spaces from a given string. The given string is Tutorials Point C Programming. The result after removing spaces is TutorialsPointCProgramming.

An array of characters is called a string.

Given below is the declaration of a string −

char stringname [size];

For example, char string[50]; string of length 50 characters.

Initialization

• Using single character constant.

char string[10] = { ‘H’, ‘e’, ‘l’, ‘l’, ‘o’ ,‘\0’}

• Using string constants.

char string[10] = “Hello”:;

Accessing

There is a control string “%s” used for accessing the string till it encounters ‘\0’.

The logic we used to remove extra spaces between strings is as follows −

len = strlen(string);
for(i=0; i<len; i++){
   if(string[0]==' '){
      for(i=0; i<(len-1); i++)
      string[i] = string[i+1];
      string[i] = '\0';
      len--;
      i = -1;
      continue;
   }
   if(string[i]==' ' && string[i+1]==' '){
      for(j=i; j<(len-1); j++){
         string[j] = string[j+1];
      }
      string[j] = '\0';
      len--;
      i--;
   }
}

Example

Following is the C program to remove all the extra spaces in a sentence by using the string concepts −

#include<stdio.h>
int main() {
   char string[200];
   int i, j, len;
   printf("Enter a statement: ");
   gets(string);
   len = strlen(string);
   for(i=0; i<len; i++) {
      if(string[0]==' ') {
         for(i=0; i<(len-1); i++)
         string[i] = string[i+1];
         string[i] = '\0';
         len--;
         i = -1;
         continue;
      }
      if(string[i]==' ' && string[i+1]==' ') {
         for(j=i; j<(len-1); j++) {
            string[j] = string[j+1];
         }
         string[j] = '\0';
         len--;
         i--;
      }
   }
   printf("
New String after removing extra spaces is = %s", string);
   getch();
   return 0;
}

Output

When the above program is executed, it produces the following output −

Enter a statement: Welcome to The world of C programming
New String after removing extra spaces is = Welcome to The world of C programming