Extract some data from array

Question

I can normally extract the data of array as:

#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
    char str[100] = "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog";
    char *c = (str + 29);
    printf("%s\n", c);
    return 0;
}

But if I have to extract data from the entire unsorted and n-sized array where n value may be more than 70 as like:

unsigned char buffer[n] = "00,00,00,11,30,45.00,a,1.1,b,d,16,ABC,98.0";
unsigned char buffer1[n] = "A,3,22,18,21,06,03,09,24,15,,,,,2.5,1.6,1.9*3E";

How can I extract some specific data like 45.00 from this unsorted array?

Answer 1

The split() method used in this suggestion was developed by @hmjd to answer the referenced post; I have made arragments on the split() method that will not change the result. The solution is accomplished in five steps marked in the source code:

1. Using the split() method, the character array is split into tokens according to the ',' character.
2. The total number of tokens is calculated to find the number of data in the field indicated by the **tokens pointer.
3. Tokens are printed for testing purposes.
4. The getIndex() method searches for a special character array among the tokens and returns the index if found.
5. The returned index and data are printed.

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

/* (1) Splits a string by separator character. */
char** split(char* a_str, const char a_delim);
/* (2) Returns the total number of parts. */
size_t getSize(char **tokens);
/* (3) Prints tokens. */
void print(char **tokens);
/* (4) Searches for a data in tokens and returns the index of the result. */
int getIndex(char **tokens, char *search, size_t size);

int main()
{
    unsigned char buffer[] = "00,00,00,11,30,45.00,a,1.1,b,d,16,ABC,98.0";
    char search[] = "45.00";
    char **tokens = split(buffer, ',');                             /* 1 */
    size_t size =  getSize(tokens);                                 /* 2 */
    print(tokens);                                                  /* 3 */
    size_t index = getIndex(tokens, search, size);                  /* 4 */
    
    if(index >= 0)
        printf("Index: %ld Result: %s", index, *(tokens + index));  /* 5 */
    return 0;
}

char** split(char* a_str, const char a_delim)
{
    char** result = 0;
    size_t count = 0;
    char* tmp = a_str;
    char* last_comma = 0;
    char delim[2];
    delim[0] = a_delim;
    delim[1] = 0;

    while (*tmp)
    {
        if (a_delim == *tmp)
        {
            count++;
            last_comma = tmp;
        }
        tmp++;
    }
    count += last_comma < (a_str + strlen(a_str) - 1);
    count++;
    result = malloc(sizeof(char*) * count);

    if (result)
    {
        size_t idx  = 0;
        char* token = strtok(a_str, delim);

        while (token)
        {
            *(result + idx++) = strdup(token);
            token = strtok(0, delim);
        }
        *(result + idx) = 0;
    }
    return result;
}

int getIndex(char **tokens, char *search, size_t size)
{
    int index;
    if(tokens)
        for(index = 0 ; *(tokens + index) ; index++)
            if(strcmp(search, *(tokens + index)) == 0)
                return index;
    return -1;
}

void print(char **tokens)
{
    if (tokens)
        for (size_t index = 0; *(tokens + index); index++)
            printf("[%ld]: %s\t", index, *(tokens + index));
    printf("\n");
}

size_t getSize(char **tokens)
{
    size_t counter = 0;
    while(*(tokens + counter))
        ++counter;
    return counter;
}

---

This source code produces the following output:

[0]: 00 [1]: 00 [2]: 00 [3]: 11 [4]: 30 [5]: 45.00 [6]: a [7]: 1.1 [8]: b [9]: d [10]: 16 [11]: ABC [12]: 98.0
Index: 5 Result: 45.00

---

References

• Split string with delimiters in C