GETSTR - A User-Friendly C String Input Library

Overview 🚀

The getstr library provides a simple yet robust set of functions for acquiring string input from the user in C programming. Designed to be more user-friendly than standard C input functions, getstr offers a dynamic getstrf() function that supports printf-like formatting for prompts and automatically handles dynamic memory allocation for user input.

Features ✨

• Formatted Prompts: Display prompts to the user using familiar printf-style format strings.
• Dynamic Input Buffer: Automatically expands the input buffer to accommodate strings of any length, preventing buffer overflows.
• Cross-Platform Line Ending Handling: Gracefully handles common line endings (\n, \r\n).
• Robust Error Handling: Returns NULL on memory allocation failures or immediate End-Of-File (EOF).
• Simplified String Type: Introduces a str type alias for char * for enhanced readability.

Installation 🛠️

To use the getstr library in your C projects, follow these steps to compile it into a static library (.a file) and link it with your applications.

1. Download the Library Files 📥

Download the latest version of the getstr library header (getstr.h) and source (getstr.c) files from the official GitHub repository: GITHUB/LIBGETSTR

Make sure both getstr.h and getstr.c are placed in the same directory.

2. Compile the Source Code ⚙️

Navigate to the directory where you saved getstr.c and getstr.h in your terminal or command prompt. Compile the getstr.c file using GCC (or your preferred C compiler):

gcc -c getstr.c

This command creates a compiled object file named getstr.o in the same directory.

3. Create the Static Library 📦

Use the ar (GNU Binutils) tool to create an archive static library file. On Windows, MinGW compilers typically have ar installed by default.

ar rcs libgetstr.a getstr.o

This command creates a static library file named libgetstr.a.

Note: You can now delete the getstr.o file as it's no longer needed after creating the static library.

4. Organize File Structure (Optional but Recommended) 🗂️

For better project organization, you can create a specific directory structure to manage your library files:

.
├── include/
│   └── getstr.h
├── lib/
│   └── libgetstr.a
└── your_application.c

Copy the getstr.h header file to the include directory. Move the static library libgetstr.a to the lib directory.

5. Compile Your Application with the Library 💻

When compiling your application (your_application.c in the example above) that uses getstr, you need to tell the compiler where to find the header files and the library file.

gcc -I./include -L./lib your_application.c -o your_application -lgetstr

Explanation of flags:

• -I./include: Specifies the directory containing the header files (here, ./include).
• -L./lib: Specifies the directory containing the libraries (here, ./lib).
• your_application.c: The source code file of your application.
• -o your_application: Sets the output executable file name to your_application.
• -lgetstr: Links the program with the static library libgetstr.a (the -l flag expects the library name without the lib prefix and .a suffix).

Usage 💡

Once installed, you can include getstr.h in your C source files and use the getstrf() function.

Example:

Here's a simple example demonstrating how to use getstrf():

Link with -lgetstr.

#include <getstr.h>
#include <stdio.h>


int main()
{
    str string = getstrf("Prompt: ");
    printf("Output string: %s!\n", string);
    return 0;
}

Running the Example

After compiling the example (e.g., as test using the installation steps), run it from your terminal:

gcc -I./include -L./lib test.c -o test -lgetstr

./test

Example Output:

Prompt: This is a String.
Output string: This is a String.

Memory Management 💾

The getstrf() function dynamically allocates memory on the heap to store the user's input. It is crucial that you free() this memory using free() from stdlib.h once you are finished with the string to prevent memory leaks.

Example:

#include <getstr.h>    // For str keyword and getstrf()
#include <stdio.h>     // For printf()
#include <stdlib.h>    // For free()


int main()
{
	str string = getstrf("Prompt: ");
	printf("Before using free(): %s\n", string);
	free(string);
	printf("After using free(): %s\n", string);
	return 0;
}

Reference 📚

For a visual guide on compiling and linking C libraries, you can refer to this YouTube video tutorial: Elatronion

License 📜

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE section above for details.

Contributing 🤝

Contributions are welcome! If you find bugs, have suggestions for improvements, or would like to contribute new features, please open an issue or submit a pull request on the GitHub repository.

Contact 📬

For any questions or feedback, please reach out to the project maintainer:

• Project Maintainer 👨‍💻: Sumit Das
• Email ✉️: [email protected]