How can I skip whitespaces when iterating through a string

[teal moon]

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

#define MAX_STRING_LENGTH 1024

int main (void) {

    //Scans in a string from the user.
    char buffer[MAX_STRING_LENGTH];
    fgets(buffer, MAX_STRING_LENGTH, stdin);

    int string_length = strlen(string) - 1;

    for (int i = 0; i < string_length; i++) {

        if (string[i] == ' ') {
            i -= 1;
        } else if (string[i] > 'A' && string[i] < 'Z') {
            if (i % 2 == 0) {
                string[i] += 32;
            }
        } else if (string[i] > 'a' && string[i] < 'z') {
            if (i % 2 == 1) {
                string[i] -= 32;
            }
        }

    }

    // Prints resulting string.
    printf("%s", buffer);

    return 0;
}

I've tried to skip the whitespaces using:

if (string[i] == ' ') {
    i -= 1;
} 

but it doesn't work
could someone plz explain why this didn't work and what I can do instead to have the code skip whitespaces?

[forest wagon]

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[teal moon]

im using string instead of buffer cause that part was in a function and i forgot to replace

[hollow kettle]

what you would want is

if (string[i] == ' ') {
  continue;
}

[teal moon]

just think of string as buffer or vice versa

[hollow kettle]

continue will end the current iteration of the loop and move to the next step

[teal moon]

tried continue just now, didn't work

void make_alternating(char string[MAX_STRING_LENGTH]);

int main (void) {

    //Scans in a string from the user.
    char buffer[MAX_STRING_LENGTH];
    fgets(buffer, MAX_STRING_LENGTH, stdin);

    // Runs function
    make_alternating(buffer);

    // Prints resulting string.
    printf("%s", buffer);

    return 0;
}

void make_alternating(char string[MAX_STRING_LENGTH]) {

    int string_length = strlen(string) - 1;

    for (int i = 0; i < string_length; i++) {
        if (string[i] == ' ') {
            continue;
        } else if (string[i] > 'A' && string[i] < 'Z') {
            if (i % 2 == 0) {
                string[i] += 32;
            }
        } else if (string[i] > 'a' && string[i] < 'z') {
            if (i % 2 == 1) {
                string[i] -= 32;
            }
        }

    }
}

This is full code

[hollow kettle]

given an input, what the expected output, and your actual output

[teal moon]

Input:
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
Expected Output:
tHe QuIcK bRoWn FoX jUmPs OvEr ThE lAzY dOg
My Output:
tHe qUiCk bRoWn fOx jUmPs oVeR ThE Lazy dOg

my code is reading the whitespaces

[hollow kettle]

Oh in that sense
What you want is to keep track of a separate variable which keeps track of how many non whitespaces you come accross

[worthy coral]

Instead of relying on if (i % 2 == 0) you should use a variable like: int make_upper = 0 which you rely on instead and at the end of each loop iteration you flip the variable: make_upper = !make_upper

The problem with your code is that even if you continue, i will still change for the next iteration, hence implicitly counting the whitespace

[forest wagon]

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