Iterator woes with C++ strings - c++

For an assignment, we have to do a large program that manipulates C++ strings in a variety of ways. Most of it is working, but this particular function is messing with me. I am trying to cycle through a string and remove all non-alphanumeric (tab, blank newline) characters before the first alphanumeric one occurs, and then end the string when the first non-alphanumeric character appears again. For example, " bob jon" would be saved as "bob". Something is going wrong where every string is considered empty. Most peers have been telling be that
*(point++) = *marker;
can't be done and that I should change this before trying anything else...is this a way to increment the iterator while assigning its value to another iterator's value? Is it that the problem or something else?
void clean_entry( const string& j, string& k )
{
string::iterator point = k.begin();
bool checker = false;
//cycle through the constant string and check for numbers and letters
for(string::const_iterator marker = j.cbegin(); marker!=j.cend(); ++marker)
{
if( isalnum(*marker) == true )
{
*(point++) = *marker; //copy to the new k string if alphanum, and increment iterator
cout << "I found a real letter!" << endl; //debugging
checker = true;
}
else if( checker == true )
break;
}
cout << "So far we have " << k << endl; //debugging
if (checker == false )
k = "(empty word)";
cout << "The new string is " << k << " apparently." << endl; //debugging
}

isalnum doesn't return bool. It returns int. The guarantee is that it returns nonzero if the character is alphanumeric and zero otherwise.This means that you can't compare the return value to true, as that comparison causes true to be converted to int, yielding 1, before the comparison is done.. if(isalnum(*marker)) is both idiomatic and actually works.Similarly, if( checker == true ) is bloated and should be if(checker), and if (checker == false ) should be if(!checker).
Your interface is questionable, since the caller must ensure that k's size is large enough to accommodate the resulting string. Better to clear k and then use push_back() or similar rather than an iterator.
On the assumption that k.size() is sufficiently large, there's nothing wrong with *(point++) = *marker;.

Related

How to solve this problem trying to iterate a string?

I'm trying to invert the case of some strings, and I did it, but I have some extra characters in my return, is it a memory problem? Or because of the length?
char* invertirCase(char* str){
int size = 0;
char* iterator = str;
while (*iterator != '\0') {
size++;
iterator++;
}
char* retorno = new char[size];
for (int i = 0; i < size; i++) {
//if capital letter:
if (str[i] < 96 && str[i] > 64) {
retorno[i] = str[i] + 32;
}
// if lower case:
else if (str[i] > 96 && str[i] < 123) {
retorno[i] = str[i] - 32;
}
//if its not a letter
else {
retorno[i] = str[i];
}
}
return retorno;
}
For example, if I try to use this function with the value "Write in C" it should return "wRITE IN c", but instead it returns "wRITE IN cýýýýÝݱ7ŽÓÝ" and I don't understand where those extra characters are coming from.
PS: I know I could use a length function, but this is from school, so I can't do that in this case.
add +1 to the size of the char array.
char* retorno = new char[size+1];
add a null-terminated string before returning retorno.
retorno[size] = '\0';
Your output string is not null-terminated
When you iterate through the input string, you increment size until you reach null. That means the null is not copied to the output string. After you exit the loop, you should increment size once more to capture the end.
As an aside, it's probably a good idea to constrain size to some maximum (while(*iterator != '\0' && size < MAXSIZE)) in case someone passes a non-terminated string into your function. If you hit the max size condition, you'd need to explicitly add the null at the end of your output.
Your string should be null terminated; which is what you are looking for when you get the initial size of the string. When you create the new string, you should allocated size+1 chars of space, then retorno[size] should be set to a null terminating character (i.e. '\0'). When you attempt to print a char* using printf or cout (or similar mechanisms), it will keep printing characters until it find the null terminating character, which is why you are getting the garbage values after your expected output.
On another note, c++ has helpful functions like std::islower / std::isupper and std::tolower / std::toupper
From what I can tell, there could be 2 things going on here:
Like everyone here mentioned, the absence of a null terminating character ('\0') at the end of your char array could be causing this.
It could be the way you are printing results of your retorno character string outside of your invertirCase() function.
I tested out your function in C++14, C++17 and C++20 and it returned the correct result each time, both with the null terminating character at the end of the retorno char array and without it.
Try printing your result inside of your function before returning it, to identify if this is being caused inside of your function or outside of it. Like so:
char* invertirCase(char* str){
// [... truncated code here]
for (int i = 0; i < size; i++) {
// [... truncated code here]
}
cout << " **** TESTING INSIDE FUNCTION ****" << endl;
cout << "-- Testing index iteration" << endl;
for (int i = 0; i < size; i++) {
cout << retorno[i];
}
cout << endl;
cout << "-- Testing iterator iteration" << endl;
for (char* iterator = retorno; *iterator != '\0'; iterator++) {
cout << *iterator;
}
cout << endl;
cout << "-- Testing advanced for loop" << endl;
for (char character : retorno) {
cout << character;
}
cout << " **** END TESTING ****" << endl;
cout << endl;
return retorno;
}
This way you could possibly identify both if the problem occurs inside of your function or if the problem is occurring because of the way you may be printing your result as well.

Passing values ​to an array within a loop

I'm trying to make a program in C++ in which the number of mathematical signs are counted. I am using isdigit to figure this out, but when I pass the value of my string, it gives me a warning.
This is the code that I have. The line digito[i] = entrada[i] is where I think the problem lies, but I do not understand why.
cout << "Input the operation" << endl;
cin >> input;
string digit[] = { "" };
string sign[]={""};
int cn = 0, cs = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < input.size(); i++) {
if (isdigit(input[i])) {
cout << "There is a digit in position " << i << endl;
cn += 1;
digit[i] = input[i];
}
else {
cout << "There is a sign in position " << i << endl;
// sign[i] = input[i];
cs += 1;
sign[i] = input[i];
}
}
It takes me to this code as the problem:
static _CONSTEXPR17 void assign(char& _Left, const char& _Right) noexcept
{ // assign an element
_Left = _Right;
}
Those two strings are problematic. You've unnecessarily declared them as arrays with one element each, and initialized each string to empty.
string digito[] = { "" };
string signo[]={""};
Yet afterwards, you're indexing them with non-zero indices:
digito[i] = entrada[i];
This line is problematic because of two reasons; going beyond the array bounds, and incompatible types.
digito[i] is the type of std::string (because digito is std::string[]), while entrada[i] is char (assuming entrada is std::string). std::string has an overload of its operator= that allows assigning to a single character, but that's not what you want here, I assume.
As for the second problem, std::string requires you to enlarge it before you random-access it at a given index. The best way to do this in this case would be during construction, dropping the erroneous array use:
std::cin >> entrada;
std::string digito(entrada.size(), ' ');
std::string signo(entrada.size(), ' ');
That being said, I'm not sure if this code does what you want it to. Given an input string of:
2+2/3
You'll get two such strings:
digito = "2 2 3"
signo = " + / "
If your actual goal was to tokenize the input (divide into numbers and operators), a much better way would be to use either two std::vector<char>s, or, even better:
using Number = int;
enum class Operator { Plus, Minus, Div, Mul };
using Token = std::variant<Number, Operator>
using Sequence = std::vector<Token>;
A consistent, strongly-typed data model will make it much easier to write correct code that produces it and operates on the results afterwards.

While loop in C++ (using break)

I'm currently working through the book C++ Primer (recommended on SO book list). An exercise was given that was essentially read through some strings, check if any strings were repeated twice in succession, if a string was repeated print which word and break out of the loop. If no word was repeated, print that. Here is my solution, I'm wondering a) if it's not a good solution and b) is my test condition for no repeated words ok? Because I had to add 1 to the variable to get it to work as expected. Here is my code:
#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
#include <string>
using namespace std;
int main() {
vector<string> words = {"Cow", "Cat", "Dog", "Dog", "Bird"};
string tempWord;
unsigned int i = 0;
while (i != words.size())
{
if (words[i] == tempWord)
{
cout << "Loop exited as the word " << tempWord << " was repeated.";
break;
}
else
{
tempWord = words[i];
}
// add 1 to i to test equality as i starts at 0
if (i + 1 == words.size())
cout << "No word was repeated.";
++i;
}
return 0;
}
The definition of "good solution" will somewhat depend on the requirements - the most important will always be "does it work" - but then there may be speed and memory requirements on top.
Yours seems to work (unless you have the first string being blank, in which case it'll break); so it's certainly not that bad.
The only suggestion I could make is that you could have a go at writing a version that doesn't keep a copy of one of the strings, because what if they're really really big / lots of them and copying them will be an expensive process?
I would move the test condition outside of the loop, as it seems unnecessary to perform it at every step. For readability I would add a bool:
string tempWord;
unsigned int i = 0;
bool exited = false;
while (i != words.size())
{
if (words[i] == tempWord)
{
cout << "Loop exited as the word " << tempWord << " was repeated.";
exited = true;
break;
}
else
{
tempWord = words[i];
}
++i;
}
// Doing the check afterwards instead
if (!exited)
{
cout << "No word was repeated.";
}
a) if it's not a good solution
For the input specified it is a good solution (it works). However, tempWord is not initialized, so the first time the loop runs it will test against an empty string. Because the input does not contain an empty string, it works. But if your input started with an empty string it would falsely find as repeating.
b) is my test condition for no repeated words ok? Because I had to add 1 to the variable to get it to work as expected.
Yes, and it is simply because the indexing of the array starts from zero, and you are testing it against the count of items in the array. So for example an array with count of 1 will have only one element which will be indexed as zero. So you were right to add 1 to i.
As an answer for the training task your code (after some fixes suggested in other answers) look good. However, if this was a real world problem (and therefore it didn't contain strange restrictions like "use a for loop and break"), then its writer should also consider ways of improving readability.
Usage of default STL algorithm is almost always better than reinventing the wheel, so I would write this code as follows:
auto equal = std::find_adjacent(words.begin(), words.end());
if (equal == words.end())
{
cout << "No word was repeated" << endl;
}
else
{
cout << "Word " << *equal << " was repeated" << endl;
}

c++ programming iteration and recursion

I am looking for some quick tips on a homework assignment. We are given a few problems and have to write two quick programs on how to solve the problems with one each of iteration and recursion. I'm sure this is easier than I think, but I am getting easily confused over the two. By no means do I want anyone to fully solve the problems for me, I won't learn anything! But if you could look at what I have so far and let me know if I am heading in the right direction. Also, the code does not need to compile, our professor wants us to have a general idea of the differences of iteration vs. recursion.
Problem: check a string to see if it is a palindrome.
My solution- I think it is the iterative solution:
bool iterative_palindrome (const string& str) {
string line, result;
stack <char> stack_input;
//user enters string, program takes it
cout << "Enter string: " << endl;
while (getline (cin, line) && (line != "")) {
//push string into stack
for (size_t i = 0; i < line.size(); i++) {
stack_input.push(line[i]);
//create reverse of original string
while (!stack_input.empty()) {
result += stack_input.top();
stack_input.pop();
return result;
}
//check for palindrome, empty string
if (line == result || line = "0" || line.empty()) {
return true;
cout << line << " is a palindrome!" << endl;
} else {
return false;
cout << line << " is NOT a palindrome." << endl;
cout << "Enter new string: " << endl;
}
}
}
}
I remind everyone, I am pretty new to this stuff. I've read a few things already, but am still having a hard time wrapping my head around this.
Here's the general idea:
Iterative:
Initialize two pointers one pointer to the start and end of the string.
Compare the characters pointed, if different -> not palindrome.
Increase the start pointer and decrease the end pointer.
Repeat until start pointer >= end pointer.
Recursive (more difficult than iterative in this case):
End condition: A string of length zero or one is a palindrome.
A string is a palindrome if the first and last characters are the same and if the string without the first and last characters is a palindrome.
You can implement this recursive algorithm more efficiently by passing pointers to the first and last character in the string instead of copying the string between recursions.
Hope this helps :-)
I figure writing code is the best way to explain the two approaches. Is this code understandable?
bool iterative_palindrome(const string& str) {
int size = str.size();
for (int i=0; i<str.size()/2; i++) {
if (str[i] != str[size-i-1])
return false;
}
return true;
}
You call this like recursive_palindrome(str, 0).
bool recursive_palindrome(const string& str, int index) {
int size = str.size();
if (index >= size/2)
return true;
if (str[index] == str[size-index-1])
recursive_palindrome(str, index+1);
else
return false;
}

Finding whether strings are anagrams - Revisited

I am sure this question has been discussed in the distant past several times on Stack Overflow. I am just trying to verify whether my answer is valid or not. I saw this question in this thread. I am sorry that this post is a duplicate of the thread and if it has to be removed, I shall do it.
I thought of doing this in a much more simple way. By just XORing the characters in the string.
So O(n) for XORing each character and O(1) for comparison of last characters in both the strings which gives a O(n) solution.
Even though the last characters may be any special symbol but if the strings are anagrams they still end up being the same. Am I right in this logic?
So instead of doing all sorting and hashing can this solution be adopted? My code goes like this:
char a[7] = "Length";
char b[7] = "enghtL";
for (int i = 1; i < 6; i++) {
a[i] = a[i] ^ a[i-1];
b[i] = b[i] ^ b[i-1];
}
if (a[5] == b[5]) {
cout << "\n The strings are anagrams";
}
else {
cout << "\n No they are not";
}
I'm sorry but this won't work.
Sure, if it is an anagram, the code (if it works correctly) will say so but you will also have a lot of 'false positives' because several (different) strings can yield the same output.
You're condensing all the information about an n-byte string into a single byte - effectively a very basic hash. Whenever you get a hash collision between two strings that aren't anagrams you'll return a false positive.
If you want an O(n) method for finding anagrams, sort the words using a counting sort then compare the results for equality.
This code might be useful as part of a solution.
My approach would be:
Check if the two words have the same amount of letters, if not then it cannot be an anagram.
Then sort the letters or each word into alphabetical (or any other) order
Step through the word lists and return false if the letters are not equal.
In C++ you can use string reverse iterators:
std::string s1 = "Length";
std::string s2 = "htgneL";
std::string s3 = "htgnel";
if (s1 == std::string(s2.rbegin(), s2.rend()))
std::cout << "s1 and s2 are anagram" << std::endl;
else
std::cout << "s1 and s2 aren't anagram" << std::endl;
if (s1 == std::string(s3.rbegin(), s3.rend()))
std::cout << "s1 and s3 are anagram" << std::endl;
else
std::cout << "s1 and s3 aren't anagram" << std::endl;