Testing for an integer in c++ - c++

Question

I'm trying to write a c++ program that tests each input integer, and stops if the input is invalid.
Here is my code, without the testing part:
#include <iostream>
#include <stdlib.h>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
int i;
do
{
cout << "\nPlease enter an integer: ";
cin >> i;
cout << endl << i << endl;
} while(i != 0);
system("Pause");
return 0;
}
How can I test the input for validity?

Answer 1

The easiest is to use std::getline to read a whole line of input into a std::string, and then test whether that string is a valid integer specification.
It's also possible to do this by testing the failure state of cin, and clearing it, but that way lies an assortment of complications that you don't want.
In order to test the string you can use a high level std::istringstream (just read from it and test its failure state after) or, more efficient but a little more complicated, strtol from the C library (the latter is what a C++ stream uses internally).

Answer 2

You need to test whether a string is an integer without crashing.
You can do this with strtol(). It converts the string to an integer, and reports on the first character that is not a legal char for a number. No invalid characters means the entire string was an integer.
There is a good description and example of how to use it here:
http://www.tutorialspoint.com/c_standard_library/c_function_strtol.htm

Answer 3

#include <iostream>
#include <stdlib.h>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
int i;
do
{
cout << "\nPlease enter an integer: ";
while(!(cin >> i))
{
cin.clear();
cin.ignore();
cout << "\nInput was invalid, please re-enter: ";
}
cout << endl << "The integer is: " << i << endl;
} while(i != 0);
system("Pause");
return 0;
}