String length getting reduced by using getline? - c++

Question

I am using getline and ignore but something is not working properly,
Below is the sample code which am not able to understand how it is working.
int main()
{
string str;
int t,length;
cin>>t; // t is the number of test cases
while(t--!=0)
{
cin.ignore();
getline(cin,str);
length=str.size();
cout<<"length="<<length;
}
}
Sample output:
2
hey hi
length 6
hey hi
length 5
Why is the length decreasing? Is this because of getline and ignore function? Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

The reason it is giving a different length is becaus your ignore() function ignores only one character. The first time round it ignores the return key you pressed after entering the number. But std::getline() deletes the return character for you. So the second time round ignore() deletes the first letter of your string making it "eh hi".
int main()
{
string str;
int t, length;
cin >> t; // does not remove the RETURN character
while(t-- != 0)
{
// first removed RETURN character after removes first letter
cin.ignore();
getline(cin, str);
length = str.size();
cout << "length = " << length;
}
}
Try using this instead:
int main()
{
string str;
int t, length;
cin >> t; // does not remove the RETURN character
while(t-- != 0)
{
// cin.ignore(); // dont do this here please
// cin >> ws skips all whitespace characters
// including the return character
getline(cin >> ws, str);
length = str.size();
cout << " length = " << length;
}
}
Alternatively (maybe better) you can move the ignore() function out of the loop to where t is really needed:
#include <limits>
int main()
{
string str;
int t, length;
cin >> t; // does not remove the RETURN character
// ignore as many characters as necessary including the return
cin.ignore(std::numeric_limits<std::streamsize>::max(), '\n');
while(t-- != 0)
{
// cin.ignore(); // not here
getline(cin, str);
length = str.size();
cout << " length = " << length;
}
}
The cin.ignore(std::numeric_limits<std::streamsize>::max(), '\n'); looks complicated but it is the only way to guarantee that any spurious characters (like spaces) are removed. You can probably get away with just cin.ignore() for the exercise if you want.
Read up on std::istream::ignore()

Answer 2

cin.ignore() defaults to ignoring one character.
If you output your string each time, you'll see that in later cases the string is equal to "ey hi". The h is being dropped.
The value of the string held by cin drops its first character before being passed to getline.
Since you're using getline, you can simply remove the cin.ignore() from your loop and your program should work as intended.
However, you should also change your cin>>t; line. In this case, the ignore() is dropping the line return after the input value 2. A stringstream here allows for a getline(...) function, or alternatively you can use cin.ignore(str.max_size(), '\n');.
In the case of the stringstream, your code would become:
#include <sstream> // stringstream
#include <string> // std::string
#include <iostream> // cin
int main()
{
string str;
int t,length;
getline(cin, str);
std::stringstream stream;
stream << str;
if (!(stream >> t)) {
// Couldn't process to int
}
// cin>>t; // t is the number of test cases
// No longer need this line.
while(t--!=0)
{
// cin.ignore(); Drop this too
getline(cin,str);
length=str.size();
cout<<"length="<<length;
}
}

Answer 3

If you are not interested in whitespace,
then use getline(cin >> ws, str)