A decision condition is triggered without input - c++

Question

I am currently working on a very simple project and I found a problem in the testing phase when I tried to enter his name for the new employee and the decision condition was suddenly triggered, I am not sure why this happened. Based on my limited coding experience, in general, a statement in an output judgment statement needs to fulfil a judgment condition, but why would a judgment condition be triggered if I didn't do any input? Thank you all for your help.
Here is a part of the code.
void Management::Add_Staff() {
std::cout << "Please enter the number of staffs you want to add: " << std::endl;
int addNum = 0; // saves the amount entered by the user
std::cin >> addNum;
while (addNum <= 0 || addNum >= 50) {
std::cout << "Invaild number. Please try again" << std::endl;
std::cout << "Please enter the number of staffs you want to add: " << std::endl;
std::cin.clear(); // clear error enter
std::cin.ignore(INT_MAX, '\n'); // INT_MAX means an extremely large number,'\n' means empty space
std::cin >> addNum;
}
int new_Size = this->_StaffNumber + addNum; // The number of existing employees plus
// the number of new employees
Person** new_Space = new Person*[new_Size]; // Open up new space
if (this->_StaffArray !=
NULL) // if the data of the original pointer is not null
{
for (int i = 0; i < this->_StaffNumber;
i++) // data of the original pointer is added to the new pointer
{
new_Space[i] = this->_StaffArray[i];
}
}
for (int i = 0; i < addNum; i++) {
int ID; // create an variable nameed id to store the staff number entered
// from users
std::cout << "Please enter pure and positive number as the staff number of " << i + 1 << " staff: " << std::endl;
std::cin >> ID;
while (ID <= 0) {
std::cout << "Invalid staff number, please enter again: " << std::endl;
std::cin.clear();
std::cin.ignore(INT_MAX, '\n');
std::cin >> ID;
}
std::string NAME; // create an variable nameed id to store the staff
// number entered from users
std::cout << "Please enter the name: " << std::endl;
// std::cin >> NAME;
while (std::getline(std::cin, NAME)) {
if (NAME.length() == 0)
{
std::cout << "Your input is not correct. Please re-enter your name" <<
std::endl;
}
// This will check if the NAME contains only characters.
else if (std::all_of(NAME.begin(), NAME.end(), isalpha)) // isalpha: The function returns a non-zero value if the argument is an alphabetic character, or zero otherwise.
{
break;
}
else {
std::cout << "Only characters are allowed:" << std::endl;
}
}
That is my test case.
*********************************************************
********Welcome to the employee management system********
***********0.Exit the management page********************
***********1.Add the employee information****************
***********2.Display the employee information************
***********3.Delete the employee information*************
***********4.Modify the employee information************
***********5.Search the employee information************
***********6.Sort by number*****************************
Please enter the numbers 0 through 6 as your next step
1
Please enter the number of staffs you want to add:
1
Please enter pure and positive number as the staff number of 1 staff:
12
Please enter the name:
Your input is not correct. Please re-enter your name
After I entered the employee number, the judgment condition was triggered before I entered the name, but I didn't enter a space, I didn't even have time to enter something, and the judgment condition was triggered.

Answer 1

When you get input form the user using std::cin the input from the user does not go directly into the program. Instead that input sits in a buffer, which temperately stores that user entered data so you can later tie that data to a variable or perform some other task with that data. However, if that buffer does not get cleared and you use std::getline then std::getline will read the buffer instead of the new user input that you actually wanted. This is why its important to make use of the std::cin.ignore() function, which will clear the buffer of unwanted int and characters. If you want a more en-depth overview of std::cin.ignore() check out this link .
The Fix:
Looking at your code you do make use of cin.ignore() to clear the buffer but only the user enters something other then a number which will drop them into that while loop.
This is what you currently have:
while (ID <= 0) {
std::cout << "Invalid staff number, please enter again: " << std::endl;
std::cin.clear();
std::cin.ignore(INT_MAX, '\n');
std::cin >> ID;
}
std::string NAME; // create an variable named id to store the staff
// number entered from users
std::cout << "Please enter the name: " << std::endl;
To correct this you will need that std::cin.ignore() call out side of the while loop so that it always happens whether there is an error or not. I have a comment that says NEW CODE LINE for where I made the change.
while (ID <= 0) {
std::cout << "Invalid staff number, please enter again: " << std::endl;
std::cin.clear();
std::cin.ignore(INT_MAX, '\n');
std::cin >> ID;
}
std::cin.ignore(INT_MAX, '\n');//NEW CODE LINE
std::string NAME; // create an variable named id to store the staff
//number entered from users
std::cout << "Please enter the name: " << std::endl;