Word Count Program in C

Program Explanation

This C program counts the number of words in a given text. It reads the input text from the user, processes the text, and counts the words. A word is defined as a sequence of characters separated by whitespace (spaces, tabs, or newlines).

Program Structure

1. Include Libraries: The program includes standard input-output library #include <stdio.h> and string manipulation library #include <string.h>.
2. Define the main Function: The main function is the entry point of the program where the program execution begins.
3. Declare Variables: Variables are declared for storing the input text, the current character being processed, the count of words, and a flag to indicate whether the previous character was a whitespace.
4. Read Input Text: The program prompts the user to enter the text and reads it using fgets() function.
5. Process the Text: The program iterates through each character of the input text. If the current character is a whitespace and the previous character was not a whitespace, it increments the word count.
6. Count the Last Word: If the last character processed is not a whitespace, the program increments the word count to account for the last word.
7. Output the Word Count: The program prints the total number of words in the given text.

Program Code

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

int main() {
    char text[1000];
    int i, word_count = 0;
    int in_word = 0;

    printf("Enter the text: ");
    fgets(text, sizeof(text), stdin);

    for (i = 0; i < strlen(text); i++) {
        if (text[i] == ' ' || text[i] == '\n' || text[i] == '\t') {
            if (in_word) {
                word_count++;
                in_word = 0;
            }
        } else {
            in_word = 1;
        }
    }

    // If the last character is not a whitespace, count the last word
    if (in_word) {
        word_count++;
    }

    printf("Number of words: %d\n", word_count);

    return 0;
}

Program Documentation

Libraries Included

• #include <stdio.h>: This library is used for standard input and output functions like printf and fgets.
• #include <string.h>: This library is used for string handling functions like strlen.

Variable Declarations

• char text[1000];: Array to store the input text.
• int i, word_count = 0;: i is the loop counter, and word_count stores the number of words.
• int in_word = 0;: Flag to check if the current character is part of a word.

Reading Input Text

• fgets(text, sizeof(text), stdin);: Reads a line of text from the standard input and stores it in the text array.

Processing the Text

• The for loop iterates through each character of the input text.
• Checks if the current character is a whitespace (' ', '\n', or '\t').
• If a whitespace is found and the previous character was part of a word, it increments the word_count and resets the in_word flag.
• If a non-whitespace character is found, it sets the in_word flag.

Counting the Last Word

• If the last character processed is not a whitespace, the program increments the word_count to account for the last word.

Outputting the Word Count

• printf("Number of words: %d\n", word_count);: Prints the total number of words in the given text.