Arranging Vector Outputs from multiple string variables - c++

Question

This is an assignment I am attempting to work on where I am attempting to create a program that asks for a books title, its author, and its date of publication, before displaying all inputs at the end. My primary obstacle is trying to get everything to display in a somewhat decent way, with additional text written to clarify the information properly.
It should look like this:
Title: Great Expectations Fahrenheit 451 Animal Farm
Author: Charles Dickens Ray Bradbury George Orwell
Date: 1824 1956 1948
#include <string>
#include <vector>
using namespace std;
int main ()
{
int i=0;
int n;
string bookTitle;
string bookAuthor;
string bookDate;
vector<string> Title;
vector<string> Author;
vector<string> Date;
cout << "Enter the Number of Books: ";
cin >> n;
cin.ignore();
for (i; i < n; i++)
{
cout << "Type the Book's Title: ";
getline (cin, bookTitle);
Title.push_back(bookTitle);
cout << "Type the Book's Author: ";
getline (cin, bookAuthor);
Author.push_back(bookAuthor);
cout << "Type the Book's Date: ";
getline (cin, bookDate);
Date.push_back(bookDate);
}
cout << endl;
cout << "The Titles: ";
for (auto it = Title.begin(); it != Title.end(); ++it) {
cout << *it << " ";
}
cout << endl;
cout << "Written by: ";
for (auto ib = Author.begin(); ib != Author.end(); ++ib) {
cout << *ib << " ";
}
cout << endl;
cout << "Written in: ";
for (auto ic = Date.begin(); ic != Date.end(); ++ic) {
cout << *ic << " ";
}
return 0;
}

Answer 1

First, let's organize your code a bit, by storing each book in a structure:
struct Book {
string title;
string author;
string date;
};
vector<Book> books;
Read them like this:
for (int i = 0; i < n; i++)
{
Book book;
getline (cin, book.title);
getline (cin, book.author);
getline (cin, book.date);
books.push_back(book);
}
For each book, you can store a useful column width for your output. To keep it simple, only the book's title and author are considered when choosing the column width:
vector<int> widths;
int padding = 2;
for (const Book& book : books)
{
widths.push_back(padding + std::max(book.title.size(), book.author.size()));
}
Now, use std::setw from <iomanip> to set the appropriate column width for each book:
cout << "The Titles: ";
for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) {
cout << std::setw(widths[i]) << books[i].title;
}
cout << endl;
cout << "Written by: ";
for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) {
cout << std::setw(widths[i]) << books[i].author;
}
cout << endl;
cout << "Written in: ";
for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) {
cout << std::setw(widths[i]) << books[i].date;
}
cout << endl;
Output:
The Titles: Great Expectations Fahrenheit 451 Animal Farm
Written by: Charles Dickens Ray Bradbury George Orwell
Written in: 1824 1956 1948

Answer 2

I would recommend using the std::setw() function within the library to set a consistent field width to format the output neatly.
For example:
cout << setw(WIDTH) << *it << " ";