title: What is a better way to do this? Morse Code Program
body: <p>I wrote a program in C for my homework that is supposed to take in text and translate it to Morse Code via an LED. For know I have substituted the pre-determined lengths of a blink from an LED with: "It is an __." This works as it is now and I would get full credit but my question is whether there is a better way to do this? I know there must be, instead of using all those 'if' statements. But I am a beginner in C. (Only drawback of this code is it is long and you cannot enter spaces.) The way it currently works is that it takes in a string and breaks it into individual letters, then in the 'for' loop checks these individual letters for the corresponding Morse Code. Let me know what you think.</p>
  
  <pre><code>// MorseCode_Attempt1.cpp : Defines the entry point for the console application.
  //
  
  include&lt;stdio.h&gt;
  include&lt;conio.h&gt;
  include&lt;string.h&gt;
  
  
  void main() {
  
      char str[500];
  
      printf("Enter a string you want in Morse Code with underscores as spaces: ");
      scanf("%s", &amp;str);
  
      int i;
      int stringLength = strlen(str);
  
      for (i = 0; i &lt; stringLength; i++) {
          printf("\n[%c]\n", str[i]);
  
  
          if (str[i] == 'a') {
              printf("\nIt is an a.\n");
          }
  
          if (str[i] == 'b') {
              printf("\nIt is an b.\n");
          }
  
          if (str[i] == 'c') {
              printf("\nIt is an e.\n");
          }
  
          if (str[i] == 'd') {
              printf("\nIt is an d.\n");
          }
  
          if (str[i] == 'e') {
              printf("\nIt is an e.\n");
          }
  
          if (str[i] == 'f') {
              printf("\nIt is an f.\n");
          }
  
          if (str[i] == 'g') {
              printf("\nIt is an g.\n");
          }
  
          if (str[i] == 'h') {
              printf("\nIt is an h.\n");
          }
  
          if (str[i] == 'i') {
              printf("\nIt is an i.\n");
          }
  
          if (str[i] == 'j') {
              printf("\nIt is an j.\n");
          }
  
          if (str[i] == 'k') {
              printf("\nIt is an k.\n");
          }
  
          if (str[i] == 'l') {
              printf("\nIt is an l.\n");
          }
  
          if (str[i] == 'm') {
              printf("\nIt is an m.\n");
          }
  
          if (str[i] == 'n') {
              printf("\nIt is an n.\n");
          }
  
          if (str[i] == 'o') {
              printf("\nIt is an o.\n");
          }
  
          if (str[i] == 'p') {
              printf("\nIt is an p.\n");
          }
  
          if (str[i] == 'q') {
              printf("\nIt is an q.\n");
          }
  
          if (str[i] == 'r') {
              printf("\nIt is an r.\n");
          }
  
          if (str[i] == 's') {
              printf("\nIt is an s.\n");
          }
  
          if (str[i] == 't') {
              printf("\nIt is an t.\n");
          }
  
          if (str[i] == 'u') {
              printf("\nIt is an u.\n");
          }
  
          if (str[i] == 'v') {
              printf("\nIt is an v.\n");
          }
  
          if (str[i] == 'w') {
              printf("\nIt is an w.\n");
          }
  
          if (str[i] == 'x') {
              printf("\nIt is an x.\n");
          }
  
          if (str[i] == 'y') {
              printf("\nIt is an y.\n");
          }
  
          if (str[i] == 'z') {
              printf("\nIt is an z.\n");
          }
  
          if (str[i] == '_') {
              printf("\nIt is a SPACE.\n");
          }
  
      }
  
      return 0;
  
  }
  </code></pre>