How to process a string? [closed] - c++

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The first line of input will be 2 integers, h and w, which is the height(h) and width(w) of the rectangular area of sky you will be counting stars from. You may assume their values are below 1000.
The following h lines will have w characters per line, either x (Clear Sky) or * (star).
Sample Input
5 5
x***x
xxx*x
x*xxx
xxx*x
*xxxx
Sample output
7
How can I process the string?

Answer 1

Declare a variable to count the stars with an appropriate data type.
Iterate (loop) over the string to check each character for equality with '*'. If this is the case then increment your star counter.
Width and height are not required. If you want to constrain a larger field to the width and height provided, you can use a column (character# in a line) and a row (line#) counter and keep track where in the file you are.
After each character in your string increment (add 1) your column counter. After each line ('\n'-character denotes a new line) increment your row counter and reset the column counter. if your current column or row exceed the provided width or height, then ignore any '*'-characters until you are within bounds again or the string ends.
I leave the actual code for you as an excercise.
Helpful links:
Strings
Operators
Conditionals
If you have trouble with the input part, you should consider looking elsewhere than stackoverflow.