Empty Character Constant in C

Question

I've tried changing it to double quotes, but this is wrong, also tried figuring out what it means, but the compiler keeps giving me the same error

[Error] empty character constant

#include <stdio.h>

main()
{
    int c, i, nwhite, nother;
    int ndigit[10];
    nwhite = nother = 0;
    for(i = 0; i < 10; i++)
    ndigit[i] = 0;      

    while (( c = getchar()) != EOF)
    if( c >= '0' && c <= '9')
    ++ndigit[c - '0'];
    else if (c == '' || c == '\n' || c == '\n')
    ++nwhite;
    else 
    ++nother;

    printf("digits = ");
    for(i = 0; i < 10; i++)
        printf ("%d", ndigit[i]);
        printf(", white space = %d, other = %d \n", nwhite, nother);        
}

(potential) Duplicate of https://stackoverflow.com/questions/18755025/empty-character-constant-too-many-arguments-for-format-wformat-extra or https://stackoverflow.com/questions/31193454/empty-character-constant-in-c. Questions are different, but the answer is still the same as the answer for this — Tas, May 20 '19 at 05:44
`"[Error] empty character constant"` -- this is one of those cases where the error really does mean exactly what it says..... `:)` — David C. Rankin, May 20 '19 at 06:22
regarding: `main()` There are only two valid signatures for `main()` (regardless of what Visual Studio might allow) They are: `int main( void )` and `int main( int argc, char *argv[] )` Notice they both have a return type of `int` — user3629249, May 20 '19 at 23:12
regarding: `else if (c == '' || c == '\n' || c == '\n')` This should be: `else if (c == ' ' || c == '\n' || c == '\t') // space, newline, tab` — user3629249, May 20 '19 at 23:15

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited May 20 '19 at 06:14

2

The empty character constant error is because of the following comparison in the else if clause.

c == '' //  '' is empty

Replace '' with ' '.

edited May 20 '19 at 06:14

Swordfish

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answered May 20 '19 at 05:44

P.W

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thanks for your time and patience to help me friend, that really was the case, and really interesting to know. – May 20 '19 at 05:46
However, that is not the only problem in the posted code – user3629249 May 20 '19 at 23:17

Empty Character Constant in C

1 Answers1