C – Read String using Scanf()

To read a string entered by user via standard input in C language, use scanf() function.

scanf() reads input from stdin(standard input), according to the given format and stores the data in the given arguments.

So, to read a string from console, give the format and argument to scanf() function as shown in the following code snippet.

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char name[30];
scanf("%s", name);

Here, %s is the format to read a string and this string is stored in variable name.

Examples

In the following example, we read a string input by the user in standard input to a variable name using scanf() function.

main.c

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#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
    char name[30];
    printf("Enter your name : ");
    //read input from user to "name" variable
    scanf("%s", name);
    //print to console
    printf("Hello %s!\n", name);
    return 0;
}

Output

Enter your name : Arjun
Hello Arjun!
Program ended with exit code: 0
Enter your name : Nemo
Hello Nemo!
Program ended with exit code: 0

Conclusion

In this C Tutorial, we learned how to read a string entered by user via standard input using scanf() function.