scanf("%c") call seems to be skipped

Question

I tried this code below, but it seems scanf("%c") is skipped. It only asks me to enter name and age and skips the lines below that. It just print the text in the printf above the if statements. Can anyone help?

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#include<stdio.h>

int main()
{
    int age;
    char sex;
    char name[20];
    char status;
    printf("Enter your last name\n");
    scanf("%s", &name);

    printf("Enter your age\n");
    scanf("%d", &age);

    printf("Enter sex (M/F)\n");
    scanf("%c", &sex);

    printf("your status,married, single,irrelevant (M/S/I)\n");
    scanf("%c", &status);
    if(age>=16 && sex=='M')
        printf("hello, Mr %s\n", name);
    if(age<16 && sex =='M')
        printf("hello, Master %s\n", name);
    if(sex=='F' && status=='M')
        printf("hello, Mrs %s\n", name);
    if(sex=='F' &&(status=='S' ||status=='I'))
        printf("hello,miss %s\n", name);
}

Answer 1

Change

Click to copy

scanf("%c", &sex);

to

Click to copy

scanf(" %c", &sex);
       ^
      space

and

Click to copy

scanf("%c", &status);

to

Click to copy

scanf(" %c", &status);
       ^
      space

The problem is because of trailing newline characters after your second call to scanf(). Since it is of %d type specifier, when you press Enter A newline character ( '\n' ) is left in the stream and the next scanf() tries to read that newline character, and thus, it seems as though it just skipped input, but in fact, it read the newline character.

So, the newline character is stored in the variable sex, and thus, it skips asking you for input for that variable.