What can I use for input conversion instead of scanf?

Question

I have very frequently seen people discouraging others from using scanf and saying that there are better alternatives. However, all I end up seeing is either

Answer 1

What can I use to parse input instead of scanf?

Instead of scanf(some_format, ...), consider fgets() with sscanf(buffer, some_format_and %n, ...)

By using " %n", code can simply detect if all the format was successfully scanned and that no extra non-white-space junk was at the end.

// scanf("%d %f fred", &some_int, &some_float);
#define EXPECTED_LINE_MAX 100
char buffer[EXPECTED_LINE_MAX * 2];  // Suggest 2x, no real need to be stingy.

if (fgets(buffer, sizeof buffer, stdin)) {
  int n = 0;
  // add ------------->    " %n" 
  sscanf(buffer, "%d %f fred %n", &some_int, &some_float, &n);
  // Did scan complete, and to the end?
  if (n > 0 && buffer[n] == '\0') {
    // success, use `some_int, some_float`
  } else {
    ; // Report bad input and handle desired.
  }