white-space.c

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>

struct Tuple {
    char* firstWord;
    int wordCount;
};

struct Tuple processString(char* string) {
    printf("our string is: %s and total length %i\n", string, strlen(string));

    int wordCount = 0;
    for(int i = 0; i < strlen(string); i++) {
        if(string[i] != ' ') wordCount++;
        else break;
    }

    char firstWord[wordCount];
    for(int i = 0; i < wordCount; i++) {
        firstWord[i] = string[i];
    }

    struct Tuple t = {
        firstWord, wordCount
    };

    return t;
};

void test(char* string) {
    struct Tuple t = processString(string);
    printf("'%s' -> ('%s', %i)\n", string, t.firstWord, t.wordCount);
}

int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {
    test("lorem ipsum");
    test("ay ipsum");
    test(". ipsum");
    return 0;
}