Is it possible to put multiple names in one string? - c++

Question

I just started learning C++ and I'm currently following a tutorial on YouTube.
I thought it was fun to make a very simple 'access' program. If I type in my name it says, "Welcome!" If I type in another name it says, "access denied". It worked perfectly fine, but then I wanted the program to say "Welcome!" to two different names. So, I wanted to add a second name in the string, but I couldn't figure out how to do that. I googled a lot but I couldn't find anything. In the end, I came to string name = ("Joe", "Sean");, but here, it was only valid for Sean. I just can't figure out how to put multiple names in one string and make them both work. I hope you can help me, here is my code:
#include <iostream>
#include <cmath>
#include <string>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
string name = ("Joe", "Sean");
string input;
cout << "What is your name?\nMy name is: ";
cin >> input;
if(input == name){
cout << "Welcome, "<< input <<"! ";
} else {
cout << "Access denied";
}
return 0;
}

Answer 1

This is a way to do it using a vector of strings, so you can adapt easily with more names :
#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
using namespace std;
void printMessage(string message)
{
std::cout << message << std::endl;
}
int main()
{
vector<string> names{"Joe", "Sean", "Paul"};
string input;
cout << "What is your name? " << endl;
cin >> input;
for (string name : names)
{
if (name == input)
{
printMessage("Welcome!");
return 0;
}
}
printMessage("Access Denied!");
return 0;
}

Answer 2

The problem is in the string variable "name". You need an array of strings, not a single string.
This is an example implementation:
#include <iostream>
#include <cmath>
#include <string>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
string names[] = {"Joe", "Sean"};
string input;
cout << "What is your name?\nMy name is: ";
cin >> input;
for (int i = 0; i < end(names) - begin(names); i++) {
if(input == names[i]){
cout << "Welcome, "<< input <<"! " << endl;
return 0;
}
}
cout << "Access denied" << endl;
return 0;
}
You encountered some quirky features of C++ in the approach you are using to initialize your string variable:
string s1 = ("Joe"); // creates a string "Joe"
string s2 = ("Joe", "Sean"); // creates 2 strings, "Joe" and "Sean", and the variable s2 stores only the latter!
For more details on the different methods for initializing variables there has been an interesting discussion in this previous question.