I'm trying to compare something that i read with fgets with the words from the first column of the array, but I can't get it, I thing it could be the \0 at the end of each string but I can't get the comparison works

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#define MAX_STRLEN 3  

const char *bdato [][columns]={
    {"tc","Torta Cubana"},
    {"th","Torta Huatulco"},
    {"tm","Torta Mexicana"},
    {"tr","Torta Rusa"},
    {"r", "Refresco"},
    {"a", "Agua sabor"}};

int total() {
    char v[20];
    int flag=0,cont=0;
    fgets(v,sizeof(v),stdin);
    do {
        if(strcmp(v,bdato[cont][0])==0){ /*this*/
            flag=1;
            printf("I found one");
        }
        cont++;
    } while(!(flag==1||cont==5));
}

the rewritten code:

  #defines .....
  .............
  .............
 int total(){
 size_t len = strlen(v);
        printf("something here");
        fgets(v,sizeof(v),stdin);
        len = strlen(v);
        if(len>0){
        v[len - 1] = '\0';}
        if(strcmp((v,bdato[cont][0])==0)){
            /*another code*/
        }
 }

Your string comparisons are failing because fgets() includes the newline that ends the input line.

You need to strip that out, something like

const size_t len = strlen(v);
if(len > 0)
  v[len - 1] = '\0';

should do it. The if is just to be somewhat sure we're not about to index backwards.

Also, you should check that fgets() succeeds before relying on v to have valid input.