The **`gets` function** is part of the `<stdio.h>` header file in C. 

It is used when input is required from the user. It takes a single parameter as input, i.e., the variable to store data in. The illustration below shows how `gets` works:


Function `gets` allows space-separated strings to be entered by the user. It waits until the newline character `\n` or an end-of-file `EOF` is reached. The string is then stored in the form of a character array.


# Example

The following code snippet shows how `gets` can be used: 

> Input your string using the `STDIN` option. Then press `Run`.

#include<stdio.h> // Including header file

int main(){

  char myString[50]; // creating a character array
  gets(myString); // use gets to store input
  printf("You entered:  %s", myString);
  return 0;
}

# Limitation of `gets` 

As we can see from the output above, the code gives a warning. This is because `gets` does not perform bound-checking. It does not check whether the user input is within the number of bytes specified for storage in the character array. An input larger than the array capacity may lead to a [buffer overflow](https://www.educative.io/answers/buffer-overflow).

>This limitation of `gets` can be overcome by using `fgets`.

What is gets in C?

The gets function is part of the  header file in C. It is used when input is required from the user. It takes a single parameter as input, i.e., the variable to store data in. The illustration below shows how gets works: 

What is gets in C?

Example

Limitation of gets

Limitation of `gets`