http://kor.i2p/books/The%20C%20Programming%20Language%20by%20K&R/chapter7.html
Then we could write while (getline(line, sizeof(line)) > 0) {
if (sscanf(line, "%d %s %d", &day, monthname, &year) == 3)
printf("valid: %s\n", line); /* 25 Dec 1988 form */
else if (sscanf(line, "%d/%d/%d", &month, &day, &year) == 3)
printf("valid: %s\n", line); /* mm/dd/yy form */
else
printf("invalid: %s\n", line); /* invalid form */
} Calls to scanf can be mixed...