C Program to Skip Characters While Reading Integers Using scanf()

Ever wondered how to skip unwanted characters like commas, spaces or symbols while taking multiple integer inputs in C?
That's where format specifiers in scanf() come to the rescue.

In this tutorial, you'll learn how to:
Accept integer values from a string that includes other characters (like 10,20,30)
Use scanf() to skip those extra characters and only read the integers

Practical Implementations:

#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
    int a, b, c;

    // Ask the user to input values with commas (or any separators)
    printf("Enter three integers separated by commas (e.g., 10,20,30): ");
    
    // Skip commas while reading input
    scanf("%d,%d,%d", &a, &b, &c);

    // Display the values
    printf("You entered: %d, %d, %d\n", a, b, c);

    return 0;
}

Output:
Enter three integers separated by commas (e.g., 10,20,30): 25,50,75
You entered: 25, 50, 75

Description:
In this program, we want the user to enter three numbers, but instead of typing them with spaces, we allow them to separate the numbers using commas. The format string "%d,%d,%d" in scanf() tells the compiler to read an integer, expect and skip a comma and repeat this pattern.

This way, if the user types 25,50,75, the program reads all three values correctly, ignoring the commas in between. This trick is handy when you're reading data that's structured like CSV (Comma-Separated Values) or user input in a more formatted style."

How to Skip Characters While Reading Integers Using scanf() in C

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