#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <ctype.h>
void clean_string(const char *input, char *output) {
int inside = 0; // flag for parentheses
int space_pending = 0; // flag for collapsing spaces
int j = 0;
for (int i = 0; input[i] != '\0'; i++) {
char c = input[i];
if (c == '(') {
inside = 1; // enter parentheses
} else if (c == ')') {
inside = 0; // exit parentheses
} else if (!inside) {
if (isspace((unsigned char)c)) {
space_pending = 1; // mark that we saw space
} else {
if (space_pending && j > 0) {
output[j++] = ' '; // collapse multiple spaces into one
space_pending = 0;
}
output[j++] = c; // copy non-space character
}
}
}
output[j] = '\0'; // null-terminate
}
int main() {
char str[] = "Hello (remove this) from the future (and this too)";
char result[100]; // ensure large enough buffer
clean_string(str, result);
printf("Original: %s\n", str);
printf("Cleaned : %s\n", result);
return 0;
}
/*
run:
Original: Hello (remove this) from the future (and this too)
Cleaned : Hello from the future
*/
