Question: At some point in my code, I want to read a name for a file that I will be creating (and/or editing) and I've come up with the following:

```
FILE *fp;
char filename[15];
fgets(filename, 15, stdin);
fp = fopen(filename, "a");
fprintf(fp, "some stuff goes here");
fclose(fp);

```

Even though that does compile and run, it does not create (or open, if I manually create it) the file specified by `filename`.  

What would you suggest?

Answer: 
Usually(but not always), `fgets()` will give you an extra `'\n'` appending the inputted string, because

> 
> A newline character makes fgets stop reading, but it is considered a
>  valid character by the function and included in the string copied to
>  str.
> 
> 
> 

Reference: <http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/cstdio/fgets/>

To get rid of that `'\n'` using minimal code:

```
fgets(filename, 15, stdin);
filename[strcspn(filename, "\n")] = '\0';

```
Since fgets will read string util an EOF or a newline, and if a newline is read, it is stored into the buffer. That means you have to manually trim the ending newline if any. I'd suggest use fscanf instead, it won't add the newline to the buffer:

```
char filename[15];
int ret = fscanf(stdin, "%s", filename);
if (ret != 1) { // handle input error }
fp = fopen(filename, "a");

```