title: Using strcmp in an if statement
body: <p>I am fairly new to C, and I am trying to understand using strings and <code>strcmp</code> to compare two strings in an <code>if</code> statement.</p>
  
  <p>My goal is to be able to run a different function depending on what the user has inputted.</p>
  
  <pre><code>#include &lt;stdio.h&gt;
  #include &lt;iostream&gt;
  #include &lt;string.h&gt;
  #include &lt;stdlib.h&gt;
  
  void gasbill();
  void electricitybill();
  
  int main()
  {
    char input[20];
    const char gasCheck[4] = "gas";
    const char electricityCheck[13] = "electricity";
  
    printf("Your bills explained!\n\n");
    printf("In this application I will go through your gas and electricty bills.\n");
    printf("I will explain how each of the billing payments work, \nand the calculations that go on,\n");
    printf("to create your bill.\n\n");
    printf("Please choose a bill to get started with:\n- gas\n- electricity\n\n");
    fgets(input, 20, stdin);
  
    if (strcmp (input, gasCheck)== 0){
      printf("\nPreparing to run Gas bill!\n\n");
      system("PAUSE");
      system("cls");
      gasbill();
      system("PAUSE");
    }
    else if (strcmp (input, electricityCheck)== 0){
      printf("\nPreparing to run Electricity bill!\n\n");
      system("cls");
      electricitybill();
      system("PAUSE");}
    else {
      printf("\nError exiting...\n\n");
      system("PAUSE");
    }
  
    return 0;
  }
  
  void gasbill()
  {
    float balanceBroughtForward, gasThisQuarter, subTotalPerQuarter;
    char poundSign = 156;
  
    printf("******Your gas bill, explained!******\n\n\n");
    printf("Hello, and welcome to your gas bill, explained. Let's get started.\n");
    printf("Please enter the balance brought forward from your previous statement: \n\n%c", poundSign);
    scanf("%f", &amp;balanceBroughtForward);
    printf("\nHow this works:\n- The money that you did not pay last quarter for your gas bill\nhas been added to this quarterly payment\n\n");
    printf("\nNext let's add this to the amount of gas you have spent this quarter. \n(how much gas have you used so far in this billing period?)");
    printf(": %c", poundSign);
    scanf("%f", &amp;gasThisQuarter);
    printf("\n\nNow what? The two values that you have entered\n(balance brought forward 
    and gas spent this quarter)\nare added together, %c%3.2f + %c%3.2f\n", poundSign, 
    balanceBroughtForward, poundSign, gasThisQuarter);
    subTotalPerQuarter = (balanceBroughtForward + gasThisQuarter);
    printf("This is"); 
  }
  
  void electricitybill()
  {
    printf("Empty");
    system("PAUSE");   
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>When ever it runs the if statement it always executes the gasBill function and not the electricityBill function.</p>
  
  <p>Thanks in advance.</p>