Why does my C script not register user input when using scanf() function in VS Code?

when I put the scanf() function in C, it doesnt scan the thing that you type in. Here's the script:

#include <stdio.h>

int main()
{
    char input;
    printf("hello, pls give input\n  >>> ");
    scanf(" %s", &input);  //This is the problem
    printf("\n%s", input);
    return 0;
}

And the output looks something like this:

hello, pls give input
> > > hi
*nothing*

I'm also using VS Code, is the problem in VS Code or what?

I was even trying the whitespace, but that didn't work out either.

When using the %s format specifer with scanf, you are required to pass a pointer to allocated memory that has sufficient space to store the string, including the null terminating character.

You are violating this rule, because you are passing a pointer to allocated memory that only has space for a single character. This means that this allocated memory can only store an empty string (consisting only of the terminating null character). Any attempt to write more than an empty string to input will cause a buffer overflow, thereby invoking undefined behavior (which means that anything can happen, including your program crashing).

For this reason, I suggest that you make input an array instead of a single character, for example like this:

char input[100];

I also recommend that you tell scanf to not match more than 99 characters for the %s format specifier, so that not more than 100 characters (including the terminating null character) is written to input, in order to prevent a buffer overflow in case the user does enter more than 99 characters:

scanf( "%99s", input );

Alternatively, you can use fgets instead of scanf. This will read an entire line of input, instead of only a single word. Here is an example:

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

int main( void )
{
    char input[100];

    //get input from user
    printf( "Please enter input: ");
    if ( fgets( input, sizeof input, stdin ) == NULL )
    {
        fprintf( stderr, "Input error!\n" );
        return EXIT_FAILURE;
    }

    //remove newline character, if it exists
    input[strcspn(input,"\n")] = '
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
int main( void )
{
char input[100];
//get input from user
printf( "Please enter input: ");
if ( fgets( input, sizeof input, stdin ) == NULL )
{
fprintf( stderr, "Input error!\n" );
return EXIT_FAILURE;
}
//remove newline character, if it exists
input[strcspn(input,"\n")] = '\0';
//print input back to user
printf("You entered: %s\n", input);
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
';

    //print input back to user
    printf("You entered: %s\n", input);

    return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}