C++ Accepting a command-line argument with parameters - c++

Question

I've got a program that needs to accept multiple command line arguments. I've gotten to a stage where I need to set it up to accept argument n, which specifies the max and min lengths of the string that will eventually be printed. Basically input could look like this:
-a -n7,7 -i // with -a and -i being other arguments
I'm fine with picking out arguments on their own, but I'm not sure how to pluck out those max and min values too. I've had a go (see below), but whenever I try and use variables minimum and maximum, I just get a run time error. Cheers guys.
int c;
while ((c = getopt(argc, argv, ":wpsaevin")) != -1) {
switch (c) {
case 'w': // pattern matches whole word
mode = WHOLE;
break;
case 'p': // pattern matches prefix
mode = PREFIX;
break;
case 'a': // pattern matches anywhere
mode = ANYWHERE;
break;
case 's': // pattern matches suffix
mode = SUFFIX;
break;
case 'e': // pattern matches anywhere
mode = EMBEDDED;
break;
case 'v': // reverse sense of match
reverse_match = true;
break;
case 'i': // ignore case of pattern
ignore_case = true;
break;
case 'n': //Specifies word length
length_spec = true;
cin >> minimum >> maximum;
if (minimum == 0 && maximum == 0) { //no word limit
length_spec = false;
} else if (maximum == 0) {
maximum = 100;
}
break;
}
}
argc -= optind;
argv += optind;

Answer 1

From this page:
This variable is set by getopt to point at the value of the option
argument, for those options that accept arguments.
case 'n': //Specifies word length
length_spec = true;
char *cvalue = optarg;
// TODO: Split cvalue by delimiter
// to obtain minimum and maximum
if (minimum == 0 && maximum == 0) { //no word limit
length_spec = false;
} else if (maximum == 0) {
maximum = 100;
}
break;
And an example of splitting a string:
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <algorithm>
int
main()
{
const char* test = "1000,2000";
std::string str = std::string(test);
auto find = std::find(str.begin(), str.end(), ',');
std::string first = std::string(str.begin(), find);
std::string second = std::string(find+1,str.end());
std::cout << first << " " << second;
// 1000 2000
}
EDIT
Reference link
If you're able to use C++11, consider using std::stoi, like so:
int first_int = std::stoi( first );
int second_int = std::stoi ( second );
If not, try this:
std::replace(str.begin(), str.end(), ',', ' ');
std::istringstream ss(str);
ss >> first_int;
ss >> second_int;
std::cout << first_int << " " << second_int << std::endl;
I would use atoi as a last resort.
A naive implementation might look like this (use at your own risk):
int convert(std::string s)
{
int size = s.size();
int exp = size - 1;
int result = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < size; i++)
{
char c = s[i];
result += (int)(c - '0') * std::pow(10, exp--);
}
return result;
}

Answer 2

You can use Boost Library Program Options, as #aaronman suggested above.