C++ Multi-split a string - c++

Question

I'm trying to split some data i receive, the data is like this:
0010|chocolate|cookie;458|strawberry|cream;823|peanut|butter;09910|chocolate|icecream
so first i need to separe each section of food (separed with ";") and then get the ID of only the food sections that contains "chocolate" on it, the problem is that the data is not static so i can't predict how many times a food section with "chocolate" will appear.
Here is the code where i split the food sections and get the quantity of sections that are in the data:
#include <string>
#include <sstream>
#include <vector>
#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
using namespace std;
vector<string> &split(const string &s, char delim, vector<string> &elems)
{
stringstream ss(s);
string item;
while (getline(ss, item, delim))
{
elems.push_back(item);
}
return elems;
}
vector<string> split(const string &s, char delim)
{
vector<string> elems;
split(s, delim, elems);
return elems;
}
char* data = "0010|chocolate|cookie;458|strawberry|cream;823|peanut|butter;09910|chocolate|icecream";
int main()
{
vector<string> food = split(data, ';');
cout << number of food sections is : " << food.size();
return 0;
}
It works, but now i want it to read in ALL the sections and list me which ones contains "chocolate" on it like:
0010|chocolate|cookie
09910|chocolate|icecream
then list me only the ID's of the sections that contains chocolate on it, which probably is possible with the same split vector i use.
0010
09910

Answer 1

It just depends how rich your data is. Ultimately you have to throw a recursive descent parser at it. But this seems simpler.
Can semicolon be escaped? If not, go though, and each time you hit a semicolon, store the index in a growing vector. That gives you record starts. Then step through the records. Create a temporary string which consists of the record up to the semicolon, then search for the string "chocolate". If it matches, the id is the first field in your record, so up to the first | character.

Answer 2

Try using a function to find a word inside a string delimited by delim, like this one:
bool find(string vfood, string s, char delim)
{
std::istringstream to_find(vfood);
for (std::string word; std::getline(to_find, word, delim); ) if (word == s) return true;
return false;
}
And then you can find whatever you want within each string of 'food'
vector<string> food_with_chocolate;
for (string &s : food)
{
if (find(s, "chocolate", '|')) food_with_chocolate.push_back(s);
}