How can I avoid bad input from a user? - c++

Question

I am a very newbie programmer, so I don't really know much about writing code to protect the application.. Basically, I created a basicMath.h file and created a do while loop to make a very basic console calculator (only two floats are passed through the functions). I use a series of if and else if statements to determine what the users wants to do. (1.add, 2.subtract, 3.multiply, 4.divide) I used a else { cout << "invalid input" << endl;} to protect against any other values, but then I tried to actually write a letter, and the program entered a infinite loop. Is there anyway to protect against users who accidentally hit a character instead of a number?
`#include <iostream>
#include "basicMath.h"
using namespace std;
char tryAgain = 'y';
float numOne = 0, numTwo = 0;
int options = 0;
int main()
{
cout << "welcome to my calculator program." << endl;
cout << "This will be a basic calculator." << endl;
do{
cout << "What would you like to do?" << endl;
cout << "1. Addition." << endl;
cout << "2. Subtraction." << endl;
cout << "3. Multiplication" << endl;
cout << "4. Division." << endl;
cin >> options;
if (options == 1){
cout << "Enter your first number." << endl;
cin >> numOne;
cout << "Enter your second number." << endl;
cin >> numTwo;
cout << numOne << " + " << numTwo << " = " << add(numOne, numTwo) << endl;
}
else if (options == 2){
cout << "Enter your first number." << endl;
cin >> numOne;
cout << "Enter your second number." << endl;
cin >> numTwo;
cout << numOne << " - " << numTwo << " = " << subtract(numOne, numTwo) << endl;
}
else if (options == 3){
cout << "Enter your first number." << endl;
cin >> numOne;
cout << "Enter your second number." << endl;
cin >> numTwo;
cout << numOne << " * " << numTwo << " = " << multiply(numOne, numTwo) << endl;
}
else if (options == 4){
cout << "Enter your first number." << endl;
cin >> numOne;
cout << "Enter your second number." << endl;
cin >> numTwo;
cout << numOne << " / " << numTwo << " = " << divide(numOne, numTwo) << endl;
}
else {
cout << "Error, invalid option input." << endl;
}
cout << "Would you like to use this calculator again? (y/n)" << endl;
cin >> tryAgain;
}while (tryAgain == 'y');
cout << "Thank you for using my basic calculator!" << endl;
return 0;
}
`

Answer 1

One way would be to use exception handling, but as a newbie you're probably far from learning that.
Instead use the cin.fail() which returns 1 after a bad or unexpected input. Note that you need to clear the "bad" status using cin.clear().
A simple way would be to implement a function:
int GetNumber ()
{
int n;
cin >> n;
while (cin.fail())
{
cin.clear();
cin.ignore();
cout << "Not a valid number. Please reenter: ";
cin >> n;
}
return n;
}
Now in your main function wherever you are taking input, just call GetNumber and store the returned value in your variable. For example, instead of cin >> numOne;, do numOne = GetNumber();

Answer 2

When you input to cin, it is expecting a specific type, such as an integer. If it receives something that it does not expect, such as a letter, it sets a bad flag.
You can usually catch that by looking for fail, and if you find it, flush your input as well as the bad bit (using clear), and try again.

Answer 3

Read a whole line of text first, then convert the line of text to a number and handle any errors in the string-to-number conversion.
Reading a whole line of text from std::cin is done with the std::getline function (not to be confused with the stream's member function):
std::string line;
std::getline(std::cin, line);
if (!std::cin) {
// some catastrophic failure
}
String-to-number conversion is done with std::istringstream (pre-C++11) or with std::stoi (C++11). Here is the pre-C++11 version:
std::istringstream is(line);
int number = 0;
is >> number;
if (!is) {
// line is not a number, e.g. "abc" or "abc123", or the number is too big
// to fit in an int, e.g. "11111111111111111111111111111111111"
} else if (!is.eof()) {
// line is a number, but ends with a non-number, e.g. "123abc",
// whether that's an error depends on your requirements
} else {
// number is OK
}
And here the C++11 version:
try {
std::cout << std::stoi(line) << "\n";
} catch (std::exception const &exc) {
// line is not a number, e.g. "abc" or "abc123", or the number is too big
// to fit in an int, e.g. "11111111111111111111111111111111111"
std::cout << exc.what() << "\n";
}