press a key to start function - c++

I am receiving some data, which I want to receive continuously, from my port and printing on my screen. At the same time, I am writing these in a text file. I want to be able to press a key on my keyboard to start the writing to a text file process. So if I don't press it, it will keep getting the data and just displaying it on the screen but won't write in a text file.
I tried,
char x;
cin>>x;
if(x=='0')
{
printtoText(buffer);
}
ofcourse that did not work. How could I do that? I searched around the web but came up with nothing. Any help would be great.
Thanks

In fact if you want to do this in one thread you can. It won't be elegant but should work.
You can start receiving data in trunks in a loop and check every trunk of received data if key has been pressed. If it has, then activate printtoText(buffer).
EDIT:
I was thinking about something like that:
void readFile () {
char str[256];
std::cout << "Enter the name of an existing text file: ";
std::cin.get (str,256); // get c-string
std::ifstream is(str); // open file
while (is.good()) // loop while extraction from file is possible
{
char c = is.get(); // get character from file
if (is.good())
//Here perform checkl if the key has been pressed and if yes take additional actions
std::cout << c;
}
is.close(); // close file
}

Related

Why is stream::ignore not working as intended?

As far as I know, stream.ignore(n, 'n') should ignore an (n) amount of characters or if ā€˜\nā€™ is reached, and skip over to the next line, however, when I run the next code:
// include...
void insertInfo(int info) {
std::fstream stream("infoFile.txt"); // Open the file
while (!stream.eof()) {
std::string a{};
// getline(stream, a); <--- Tried this, didn't work either
stream.ignore(99, '\n');
} // Skip to the last line without any number, in theory
std::cout << info << std::endl; // Check if the output it's correct (Which is)
stream << info; // Insert the info
stream.close(); // Close the file
}
void main() //Main
{
std::cout << "Enter your name, followed by the info you want to add to infoFile:" << std::endl;
std::string info, temp = "";
std::getline(std::cin, temp); // Get the info input
std::stringstream sstream;
sstream << temp;
sstream >> temp >> info; // Remove the name keeping only the info
temp = ""; // ^
std::string::size_type sz;
insertInfo(stoi(info, &sz)); // Convert info string into an integer and insert it in infoFile
}
The console prints out the "info" correct value, however, when I check info.txt, in which I previously wrote a '0' on, you don't see any change.
I tried removing the "ignore" function and it overwrites the 0, which is exactly what I was trying to prevent.
I also tried using "getline" function but the same thing happens.
What is the error here?
Problem
Cannot write to file.
Why
void insertInfo(int info) {
std::fstream stream("infoFile.txt"); // Open the file
Opens file with default permissions, which includes reading. The C++ Standard says I should expect "r+" behaviour and the C Standard says a file opened with "r+" behaviour must exist in order to be read (Someone please add a link if you have one). You cannot create a new file. This is problem 1. The Asker has dealt with this problem by providing a file.
Note: take care when working with files via relative paths. The program's working directory may not be where you think it is. This is problem 1a. It appears that the Asker has this taken care of for the moment.
while (!stream.eof()) {
Common bug. For more details see Why is iostream::eof inside a loop condition considered wrong? In this case since all you're looking for is the end of the file, the fact that the file hasn't been opened at all or has encountered any read errors is missed. Since a file in an error state can never reach the end of the file this quickly becomes an infinite loop. This is problem 2.
std::string a{};
// getline(stream, a); <--- Tryied this, didn't work neither
stream.ignore(99, '\n');
Always test IO transactions for success. This call can fail unchecked.
} // Skip to the last line without any number, in theory
Assuming nothing has gone wrong, and since we're not checking the error state assuming's all we can do, the file has reached the end and is now in the EOF error state. We can't read from or write to the stream until we clear this error. This is problem number 3 and likely the problem the Asker is struggling with.
std::cout << info << std::endl; // Check if the output it's correct (Wich is)
stream << info; // Insert the info
This can fail unchecked.
stream.close(); // Close the file
This is not necessary. The file will be closed when it goes out of scope.
}
Solution
void insertInfo(int info) {
std::fstream stream("infoFile.txt"); // Open the file
while (!stream.eof()) {
stream.ignore(99, '\n');
} // Skip to the last line without any number, in theory
std::cout << info << std::endl; // Check if the output it's correct (Wich is)
stream.clear(); // Added a call to clear the error flags.
stream << info; // Insert the info
stream.close(); // Close the file
}
Now we can write to the file. But let's improve this shall we?
void insertInfo(int info) {
std::fstream stream("infoFile.txt");
while (stream.ignore(99, '\n')) // moved ignore here. now we ignore, then test the result
{
}
stream.clear();
stream << info << '\n'; // added a line ending. Without some delimiter the file
// turns into one big number
}
Note that this isn't exactly kosher. If any ignore fails for any reason, we bail out and possibly write over data because the code blindly clears and writes. I'm not spending much time here trying to patch this up because we can get really, really simple and solve the problem of creating a non-existent file at the same time.
void insertInfo(int info) {
std::fstream stream("infoFile.txt", std::ios::app);
stream << info << '\n';
}
Two lines and pretty much done. With app we append to the file. We do not need to find the end of the file, the stream automatically points at it. If the file does not exist, it is created.
Next improvement: Let people know if the write failed.
bool insertInfo(int info) {
std::fstream stream("infoFile.txt", std::ios::app);
return static_cast<bool>(stream << info << '\n');
}
If the file was not written for any reason, the function returns false and the caller can figure out what to do. The only thing left is to tighten up the stream. Since all we do is write to ti we don't need the permissiveness of a fstream. Always start with the most restrictive and move to the least. This helps prevent some potential errors by making them impossible.
bool insertInfo(int info) {
std::ofstream stream("infoFile.txt", std::ios::app);
return static_cast<bool>(stream << info << '\n');
}
Now we use an ofstream and eliminate all the extra overhead and risk brought in by the ability to read the stream when we don't read the stream.

C++ reading multiple lines from stdin

There is a part of a code I wrote in C++:
int main(int ac, char **av)
{
std::string line;
while (std::getline(std::cin, line)) {
std::cout << "[" << line << "]\n";
}
return (0);
}
Code works properly when it comes to easy examples; it can read multiple lines (single lines in while loop) one by one and display them in terminal:
The problem appears when I try to copy paste two or more lines and print them on the screen; std::getline() blocks and is stuck, unable to read the input till the end (I can guess it's already been read and it's stored somewhere in buffer maybe?).
However, when I click enter it displays the input left, line by line, which is completely fine and desired since it - as the name points - reads one line at time.
Is it possible to unblock std::getline() somehow so it reads entire block of code?
I hope I explained it well, thanks for helping!

Getting more lines from input in C++

I need to read lines from standard input, but I dont really know, how many it will be.
I tried to do it with getline() and cin combined with a while loop, but it led to an infinite loop:
string line;
while( getline(cin, string) ){...}
or
string word;
while( cin >> word ){...}
it doesnt stops at the end of the input( the lines are coming at one time, so the user is hitting just one time the Enter key ).
Thanks for your help.
Reading your comments you have a misunderstanding of "end of input".
When you start your program it waits for input from console, and if input is available it reads it. Initially your copy some strings to your console so your program takes this as input. But your program still keeps reading from the console because there was no "end of input". The program is still connected to the console.
You need to signal "end of input" to your program. On Windows you do this by pressing Ctrl+Z. On Linux you need to press Ctrl+D.
Your problem is reading from the console.
As your console does not put an EOF(end of file) when you enter an empty line.
You should try pipeing the input from a file to your program. This should end, when there is no more input.
Otherwise, just check if the string is empty, and break out of the loop, if it is empty.
The way you run your program, your input doesn't end, since the console can always provide more input. Your program behaves correctly, though perhaps not in the way you desire. That's because you have misunderstood your own desires.
What you are looking for is perhaps (but I can't be sure) for the program to end when either the input ends or when the input contains a blank line. This can be coded as follows:
int main()
{
for (std::string line; std::getline(std::cin, line); )
{
if (line.empty())
{
std::cout << "Got blank line, quitting.\n";
return 0;
}
// process line
}
std::cout << "End of input, quitting.\n";
return 0;
}

C++ Reading file using while loop, start at line "x"

I've been stuck on this issue for a while. What I have here is a loop that will read a text file containing file names. The loop reads these lines one by one, and sets it into memory via the variable sFileName. sFileName is later called upon to load an image, and the program does this one by one as the loop loads it. The user then selects a tag for the image and loads the next one. The tag and the image file name are exported into another text file, named imgresults.txt. Now, the text file with the file names is a few thousand lines. So, in the case that the user has to exit the program and tries to continue later, the loop restarts, instead of leaving off at the point when the program was closed.
I am trying to find a way to have the loop start at that point. So far, I decided to use getline() to count how many lines are currently in imgresults.txt, as that will give the number of images that have already been run through the program. This number is stored in the variable "x". I've been doing a lot of research, but I just cannot find how to set a condition for the while loop to begin at line "x". Do you guys have any suggestions? Also, if you need any clarifications, please ask. I only included the code regarding the loop, as the code for loading the image and such is perfect fine.
int _tmain(int argc, _TCHAR* argv[])
{
int value = 0;
int nCounter = 0;
FILE* fIn = NULL;
char * sLine = new char[MAX_FILENAME_SIZE];
char * sFileName = new char [MAX_FILENAME_SIZE];
char * s = new char [MAX_FILENAME_SIZE];
#define ImgListFileName "path"
#define ImgRepository "path"
if ((fIn = fopen(ImgListFileName,"rt"))==NULL)
{
printf("Failed to open file: %s\n",ImgListFileName);
return nCounter;
}
ifstream imgresults;
imgresults.open ("imgresults.txt");
int x=0;
string line;
while(!imgresults.eof()) {
getline (imgresults, line);
x++;
}
srand (time(NULL));
cout << x;
while(!feof(fIn)){
memset(sLine,0,MAX_FILENAME_SIZE*sizeof(char));
memset(sFileName,0,MAX_FILENAME_SIZE*sizeof(char));
memset(s,0,MAX_FILENAME_SIZE*sizeof(char));
fgets(sLine,MAX_FILENAME_SIZE,fIn);
strncpy(s,sLine,65);
strcat(sLine,"\0");
strcat(sFileName,s);
printf (sFileName);
nCounter++;
}
Thanks in advance!
If you really want to use imgresults.txt as the information on where you should start from the input file, then the best you can do is to have a while loop to read x lines from the input file just before the while loop where you read the input file.
while (x--) {
fgets(sLine, MAX_FILENAME_SIZE, fIn);
}
Better solution would probably be to write state of processing to another file so that you would not have to read input file line by line, but you could immediately seek to a known offset in the file.
Use ifstream::tellg to retrieve and store the current position of the file when the programm was closed.
Use ifstream::seekg to restore that position when the porgramm restarts.
Before you read each line, save the current offsets in your input and output file to a separate file, seeking back to the beginning and overwriting the existing data each time.
When/if you restart, read the offsets from that file, seek to those points, and start working from there.
You can just read lines in parallel from both files and stop when you reach the end of results file. When the loop ends, you have already discarded the file names that were already processed.
ifstream results("results.txt");
ifstream names("names.txt");
if (results && names) {
std::string temp1, temp2;
while (getline(results, temp1) && getline(names, temp2)) ; /* do nothing */
}
if (names) {
// process the rest
}
Not the most efficient solution, but it saves you the hassle of saving offsets. Just make sure that before the very first processing the results file is completely empty (or doesn't exist at all), otherwise this code will skip the first line of names file.

C++ - Making an event loop

Does anyone know how to make an event loop in c++ without a library? It doesn't have to be cross-platform, I'm on a Mac. Basically, I want the program to run and do nothing until the user presses the up arrow key, then the program will output "You pressed up" or something. All i can think of is having an infinite while or for loop and get input with cin, but I don't think cin can detect arrow keys and I believe it pauses the program until it reaches a '\n';
I would want it to look like this:
void RUN()
{
while(true)
{
// poll events and do something if needed
}
}
int main()
{
RUN();
}
I'm kinda sure it's possible without threads, and I've heard that this can be accomplished with fd_set or something, but I'm not sure how.
Any help would be really appreciated.
EDIT:
The program has to run in the background when there aren't any events. For example, Microsoft Word doesn't stop until the user presses a button, it keeps running. I want something like that, but command-line not GUI.
Since you're talking keyboard input, and not looking for a Mac look and feel, what you want is the UNIX way of doing it. And that is,
1) set the terminal in either raw or cbrk mode (I forget which).
2) now use read() to read single characters at a time.
3) temporarily echo the character read (as an int) so you can find what the up arrow key gives you.
As for the more general event loop question, where the only input device is the keyboard, you sit in a loop, and whenever a key is typed (in raw mode?) you call a routine with the value of the key typed. If you had more input devices, you would need multiple threads each could listen to a different device, putting what they find on a queues (with appropriate locking). The main loop would then check the queue and call a routine appropriately everytime something appears in it.
You can use ncurses and enable cbreak to get the raw input stream.
I've used a while loop with signal handlers. Like this incomplete snippet.
void getSomething()
{
std::cout << "Enter new step size: "; std::cout.flush();
std::cin >> globalVariable;
std::getchar(); // consume enter key.
}
void printCommands()
{
std::cout << "1: do something\n"
<< "q: quit\n"
<< "h: help\n"
<< std::endl;
}
void getCommand()
{
// Output prompt
std::cout << "Enter command ('h' for help): "; std::cout.flush();
// Set terminal to raw mode
int ret = system("stty raw");
// Wait for single character
char input = std::getchar();
// Reset terminal to normal "cooked" mode
ret = system("stty cooked");
std::cout << std::endl;
if (input == 'h') printCommands();
else if (input == '1') getSomething();
else if (input == 'q') {
g_next = true;
g_quit = true;
}
}
void
signalHandler(int signo)
{
if (signo == SIGINT) {
g_next = true;
} else if (signo == SIGQUIT) {
getCommand();
}
}
int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
signal(SIGINT, signalHandler);
signal(SIGUSR1, signalHandler);
signal(SIGQUIT, signalHandler);
do {
// Stuff
} while (!g_quit);
exit(0);
}
The question has been updated to say "The program has to run in the background ... but command-line not GUI."
All traditional; *NIX shells that can put a program into the background also disconnect the program's standard input from the terminal, so AFAIK, this has become impossible.
This does not need to be Mac specific. The Mac supports *NIX mechanisms for reading characters from a keyboard.
AFAICT all the program is doing is waiting for a character, so it might as well block.
Normally the terminal device, tty (teletype!), is interpreting characters typed on the keyboard before your program can read them from standard input. Specifically the tty device normally buffers an entire line of text, and intercepts the rubout character (and a few others like CTRL+w) to edit the line of text. This pre-processing of characters is called a 'line discipline'
You need to set the tty device driver to stop doing that! Then you can get all of the characters the user types.
You change the device using ioctl or termios on the file descriptor.
Search for e.g. "ioctl tty line discipline raw" to understand the details, and find program examples.
You can set the terminal to 'raw' using the command line program stty.
Please read the stty man page because setting it back can be slightly tricky (NB: if you make a mistake it is often easier to kill the terminal, than try to fix it, because there is not echoing of anything you type)
It is possible that the up-arrow is not a single char, so it will require some byte-at-a-time decoding to avoid blocking at the wrong point in the input stream, i.e. if some input sequences are one character, and others two, or three characters, the decoding needs to happen at each byte to decide if there is a pending byte, or one too many read's might get issued, which would cause the program to block.