I've tried googling for this, but was unable to find an answer.
Sometimes, when I'm using std::cin, whatever I input is being printed again to the console after hitting Enter. It might be limited to my machine/compiler but I'm completely clueless as to why this happens, and why it happens only occasionally.
This is some example code:
int n;
std::cout << "Enter n:" << std::endl;
std::cin >> n;
Which outputs (if I input, say, 3)
Enter n:
3
3
But only the 3 that is on the line after the Enter n: is the one I input. Why does this happen and how can I prevent it?
Edit: As this could be an IDE issue, I'm using CLion 2018.1.3
Related
Introduction
I am trying to code a converter for bin/oct/dec/hex numbers in c++. At first I print a message in a console asking the user to insert the type of conversion he wants to do and, followed by the cin that allows him to enter the conversion and then i ask him for the number followed by the cin that allows him to enter the number.
My problem
My problem is that after the user inserts the conversion, the variable gets printed on the console without me telling it that.
What I've Tried
I looked on the docs and in their example they do it like this:
cout << "Please enter an integer value: ";
cin >> i;
cout << "The value you entered is " << i;
cout << " and its double is " << i*2 << ".\n";
And that is similar to my code(which you will see below).
I also tried to do getline(cin, type) but still the variables would get printed without me coding that.
My code
Faulty code:
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
string type;
int n;
cout << "Insert what type of conversion you want to make(binoct, bindec, binhex, octbin, octdec, octhex, decbin, decoct, dechex, hexbin, hexoct, hexdec): ";
cin >> type;
cout << "Insert the number you want to convert: ";
cin >> n;
return 0;
}
Input
binoct
1001
Output
Insert what type of conversion you want to make(binoct, bindec, binhex,octbin, octdec, octhex, decbin, decoct, dechex,hexbin, hexoct, hexdec):binoct
binoct
Insert the number you want to convert:1001
1001
Expected output:
Insert what type of conversion you want to make(binoct, bindec, binhex,octbin, octdec, octhex, decbin, decoct, dechex,hexbin, hexoct, hexdec):binoct
Insert the number you want to convert:1001
Additional notes
I should mention that before this version of the code I did use cout to print my variables to see if it works but i re-built the code a few times and now there's no cout << type or cout << n inside my code
I looked on stackoverflow and I didn't seem to see anything similar, if this is a duplicate I apologize.
The code is fine, either clean and rebuild your project, or it has something to do with your project / debug settings, that print out the value.
Try Building and Running the Program in release mode.
Here is an example code demonstrating the problem I'm facing.
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
extern "C" {
#include <unistd.h>
}
int main()
{
std::cout << "Making tests ready!" << std::endl;
std::cout << "\nTo start out, Enter an integer: ";
int a = 0;
std::cin >> a;
std::string input;
sleep(3); // what to do if user enters data during this?
std::cout << "\n Now enter a string";
std::getline(std::cin, input);
std::cout << "\nHere are your values - " << a << " & " << input;
return 0;
}
See the sleep call in between the code? This could be replaced with somewhat long delays while computing something when my program isn't accepting any inputs. Now if user presses some keys during this time, that input is captured by std::getline() in next line of code. I know this is the default behavior since it should capture the input being provided.
But what I want is to clear all that captured input and start fresh with 15th line that is std::cout << "\n Now enter a string";, which is immediately after sleep. I don't know exact term to describe this or else I would have used that. Thanking you.
Edit: I've tried using std::cin.ignore(std::numeric_limits<std::streamsize>::max(), '\n'); in my code, but it asks for input and then discards it.
Please mind my english, not a native speaker.
Reading the comments causes me to think that you can't really solve this problem (at least by the means suggested there). There's an inherent race condition in any case. Consider the following lines:
sleep(3);
// (*) <- Potential location 1.
std::cout << "\n Now enter a string";
// (**) <- Potential location 2.
std::getline(std::cin, input);
The various comments show some (very technically-competent) ways to flush the standard input. The problem is, you cannot put them in the location marked (*) nor (**).
First location - you clear the standard input some way. Now you decide it's time to move to the next line (std::cout << ...). While you do that, the user types in some more input. Race!
Second location - You print out the message (std::cout << ...), and proceed to clear the standard input. Before you manage to do that, the user typed in something. Race!
It seems to me that any of the techniques described in the comment require locking the standard input, and I don't think there's a (standard) way to do so.
I recently faced a problem with the cin statement in C++.
string s;
cin >> s;
cout << 1;
In this code 1 is printed on the screen if input to s is '010' and programs time limit exceeds on ideone for the same code but input being '1010'. I don't think it is due to the '\n' left in the buffer after using cin as this is the only instance I have taken input in the program. You can find my code at http://ideone.com/7VEsbu.
Problem is elsewhere. Try adding <<endl to the line with cout - you will get an error, but see the output. Ideone isn't flushing stream instantly after cout, and that's why you don't see your output. endl forces stream flush.
A wild guess would be that last while loop never terminates.
Why does trying to input two strings using cin.get() fails? I can successfully read the first string but the input fails for second string and subsequent operations.. See the code:
#include <iostream>
#include <stdlib.h>
int main(){
long int n,k;
char a[11],b[11];
cin.get(a,11);
n = atoi(a);
cin.get(b,11);
cout<<b;
k = atoi(b);
cout << "\ncin.rdstate(): " << cin.rdstate()
<< "\n cin.eof(): " << cin.eof()
<< "\n cin.fail(): " << cin.fail()
<< "\n cin.bad(): " << cin.bad()
<< "\n cin.good(): " << cin.good() << endl << endl;
}
I am trying to input two strings and store them into long int variables as shown in program, but the cin.get(b,11) fails and stack overflow occurs for
k= atoi(b) .Also, you may observe nothing is output for cout<<b .. And, at last cin.fail() is set to 1 , which means I am doing some kind of logical error.. Please help me in rectifying this!
Please suggest some method which is fast and meant for c++ only ..
(If you feel this question is too bad please mention in comments before down voting this, I am already struggling at 21 rep!)
\n will remain in the buffer after the first cin. You can solve this problem by adding an empty cin.get()
cin.get(a,11);
n = atoi(a);
cin.get();
cin.get(b,11);
cout<<b;
k = atoi(b);
cin.get() Does not extract the delimiter from the input (documentation).
If you are C++ with streams it makes sense to use the built in functionality. In particular, C++ offers formatted I/O. To read two numbers you should use:
long int a, b;
cin >> a;
cin >> b;
This will read two numbers from the standard input.
If speed is a concern, try to turn off C I/O synchronisation: std::ios::sync_with_stdio(false); There is an interesting benchmark here that shows that if you turn of synchronisation with C I/O, streams are actually pretty fast.
I use Visual C++ 2010 Express Edition to compile and run the .exe files I write in the C++ programming language. I am trying to create a loop-based logic using C++ to ask the user how many entries he chooses to enter, and ask questions limited to that no. of entries. For example I want to output, "How many characters do you wish to enter?: " Say the user gives the answer as '3' which is stored in the int variable 'entries'. I then want to keep asking the question 3 times before it stops and continues with the next line of code. I hope you understand, here is a block of code to demonstrate what I am doing:
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
cout << "How many values do you need to enter?: ";
int entries;
cin >> entries;
int offset, number;
string valueName[50];
float valueValue[50];
for (offset = 0; offset < entries; offset++)
{
cout << "Enter " << number << " Value Name: ";
cin >> valueName[offset];
cout << "Enter " << valueName[offset] << "\'s value: ";
cin >> valueValue[offset];
for (number = 1; number <= entries; number++)
{
}
}
char response;
cin >> response;
return 0;
}
Strangely when I run this simple program, it fails when I enter the value's name to be inserted into the 0th element of the valueName[] array. It just pauses the execution of the program and a dialog box pops up saying "Runtime Check Failure #3 - Variable 'number' is being used without being initialized!" Another problem regarding this program is that, for quite some time, when I ran this program this "Runtime Check Failure #3" box never appeared, and when it didn't, the number value went wrong, and first started with 1, and then for the next loop jumped to 6, and then repeated 6 again for the next loop! Please help me! I've checked online scouring this problem everywhere, but it just doesn't apply to my type of problem! Is it because the variables are out of scope? But they're declared outside the for loops right? So please help me!
The runtime is telling you the truth, the following line comes after you have declared number as an int but have not given it a value.
cout << "Enter " << number << " Value Name: ";
In your code you declare the following, in C++ this means give me 2 ints but the values are not defined yet, e.g.
int offset, number;
Change it to something like this ..
int offset = 0;
int number = 0;
You are printing the variable number without assigning to it first, i.e. it's uninitialized. When it prints some random number it's because that what happens to be in the memory at the time you run the program. Assign a value to it before you use it.
The problem is exactly the error message you're getting. You're using the variable number without initializing it.
You use the variable right here, at the top of your loop, when it hasn't been initialized to anything yet:
cout << "Enter " << number << " Value Name: ";
What is your intention with the number variable? It doesn't really seem to be serving any purpose. If you want to print which entry you're currently on, you could use the offset variable instead, like this:
cout << "Enter " << offset << " Value Name: ";
But that still seems a little unclear to me.
But the reason that you're having a problem is because the value is uninitialized, so you're experiencing undefined behavior. This is also the reason that Visual Studio doesn't always catch it; it will probably always catch in Debug mode, but in Release mode it will almost never catch it. You need to initialize all your variables before you use them.
In my case it was because an extern variable was declared twice.