This is my first C++ related question and I'm new to character pointers and their usage. I think I've got it down but for an assignment the required output for this program is
So each first and last name is a character pointer of 20 characters (I could probably size it down but whatever) and when I output it now it looks like
cout << stu[i]->first << " " << stu[i]->last << " " << (float)stu[i]->mean << endl; and outputs the same thing as above but with a single space between each piece of data. How would I get it to print out the whitespace of the rest of the char pointer so it creates nice neat columns?
Thanks!
There is no magic whitespace in memory a char* points to. If you want to align your output you could use std::setw():
#include <iostream>
#include <iomanip>
int main()
{
char const *foo{ "Jamie" };
char const *bar{ "Reynolds" };
std::cout << std::setw(10) << foo << std::setw(10) << bar << '\n';
}
I recently started programming in c++ and I've bumped into a small problem. If I want my output to be structured (let's say that every line starts with a name and then a number) in a way that the names are written normally to the screen (every first letter of every name starts at the beginning of each new line) and I want the numbers that follow to be lined up in a column, how would I do this? I want the programs output to look like this:
Gary 0
LongName 0
VerylongName 0
I want my program to print something in the way above, but with different lengths of names (and the '0' in this case, lined up in a column).
Try the following: if you know the maximum length of all the names you intend to print (e.g. 20), then use the C++ i/o manipulators to set the width of the output (and left-justification). This will force the output to take up max characters.
Code snippet:
#include <iostream>
#include <iomanip>
...
// for each entry
std::cout << std::setw(20) << std::left << "Gary" << 10 << "\n";
...
std::cout << std::flush;
Here's some more information...
I'm shooting in the dark here since you haven't really included much information... HOWEVER one way you can do this is to make sure that you create the columns with padding around the name - and not worry about the numbers. Formatted output is one case where C has an advantage over C++ (IMHO). In C++ you can also do this with something like this:
cout << setw(15) << name << number << "\n";
Bonus points if you figure out ahead of time the maximum length of the name you have and add, say, 4 to it.
Not in the C++ standard library, but still worth mentioning: boost::format. It will let you write printf-like format strings while still being type-safe.
Example:
#include <boost/format.hpp>
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
struct PersonData
{
std::string name;
int age;
};
PersonData persons[] =
{
{"Gary", 1},
{"Whitney", 12},
{"Josephine ", 101}
};
int main(void)
{
for (auto person : persons)
{
std::cout << boost::format("%-20s %5i") % person.name % person.age << std::endl;
}
return 0;
}
Outputs:
Gary 1
Whitney 12
Josephine 101
struct X
{
const char *s;
int num;
} tab[] = {
{"Gary",1},
{"LongName",23},
{"VeryLongName",456}
};
int main(void)
{
for (int i = 0; i < sizeof(tab) / sizeof(struct X); i++ )
{
// C like - example width 20chars
//printf( "%-20s %5i\n", tab[i].s, tab[i].num );
// C++ like
std::cout << std::setw(20) << std::left << tab[i].s << std::setw(5) << std::right << tab[i].num << std::endl;
}
getchar();
return 0;
}
How can we split a std::string and a null terminated character array into two halves such that both have same length?
Please suggest an efficient method for the same.You may assume that the length of the original string/array is always an even number.
By efficiently I mean using less number of bytes in both the cases, since something using loops and buffer is not what I am looking for.
std::string s = "string_split_example";
std::string half = s.substr(0, s.length()/2);
std::string otherHalf = s.substr(s.length()/2);
cout << s.length() << " : " << s << endl;
cout << half.length() << " : " << half << endl;
cout << otherHalf .length() << " : " << otherHalf << endl;
Output:
20 : string_split_example
10 : string_spl
10 : it_example
Online Demo : http://www.ideone.com/fmYrO
You've already received a C++ answer, but here's a C answer:
int len = strlen(strA);
char *strB = malloc(len/2+1);
strncpy(strB, strA+len/2, len/2+1);
strA[len/2] = '\0';
Obviously, this uses malloc() to allocate memory for the second string, which you will have to free() at some point.
I would like to compare a character literal with the first element of string, to check for comments in a file. Why use a char? I want to make this into a function, which accepts a character var for the comment. I don't want to allow a string because I want to limit it to a single character in length.
With that in mind I assumed the easy way to go would be to address the character and pass it to the std::string's compare function. However this is giving me unintended results.
My code is as follows:
#include <string>
#include <iostream>
int main ( int argc, char *argv[] )
{
std::string my_string = "bob";
char my_char1 = 'a';
char my_char2 = 'b';
std::cout << "STRING : " << my_string.substr(0,1) << std::endl
<< "CHAR : " << my_char1 << std::endl;
if (my_string.substr(0,1).compare(&my_char1)==0)
std::cout << "WOW!" << std::endl;
else
std::cout << "NOPE..." << std::endl;
std::cout << "STRING : " << my_string.substr(0,1) << std::endl
<< "CHAR : " << my_char2 << std::endl;
if (my_string.substr(0,1).compare(&my_char2)==0)
std::cout << "WOW!" << std::endl;
else
std::cout << "NOPE..." << std::endl;
std::cout << "STRING : " << my_string << std::endl
<< "STRING 2 : " << "bob" << std::endl;
if (my_string.compare("bob")==0)
std::cout << "WOW!" << std::endl;
else
std::cout << "NOPE..." << std::endl;
}
Gives me...
STRING : b
CHAR : a
NOPE...
STRING : b
CHAR : b
NOPE...
STRING : bob
STRING 2 : bob
WOW!
Why does the function think the sub-string and character aren't the same. What's the shortest way to properly compare chars and std::string vars?
(a short rant to avoid reclassification of my question.... feel free to skip)
When I say shortest I mean that out of a desire for coding eloquence. Please note, this is NOT a homework question. I am a chemical engineering Ph.D candidate and am coding as part of independent research. One of my last questions was reclassified as "homework" by user msw (who also made a snide remark) when I asked about efficiency, which I considered on the border of abuse. My code may or may not be reused by others, but I'm trying to make it easy to read and maintainable. I also have a bizarre desire to make my code as efficient as possible where possible. Hence the questions on efficiency and eloquence.
Doing this:
if (my_string.substr(0,1).compare(&my_char2)==0)
Won't work because you're "tricking" the string into thinking it's getting a pointer to a null-terminated C-string. This will have weird effects up to and including crashing your program. Instead, just use normal equality to compare the first character of the string with my_char:
if (my_string[0] == my_char)
// do stuff
Why not just use the indexing operator on your string? It will return a char type.
if (my_string[0] == my_char1)
You can use the operator[] of string to compare it to a single char
// string::operator[]
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;
int main ()
{
string str ("Test string");
int i; char c = 't';
for (i=0; i < str.length(); i++)
{
if (c == str[i]) {
std::cout << "Equal at position i = " << i << std::endl;
}
}
return 0;
}
The behaviour of the first two calls to compare is entirely dependent on what random memory contents follows the address of each char. You are calling basic_string::compare(const char*) and the param here is assumed to be a C-String (null-terminated), not a single char. The compare() call will compare your desired char, followed by everything in memory after that char up to the next 0x00 byte, with the std::string in hand.
Otoh the << operator does have a proper overload for char input so your output does not reflect what you are actually comparing here.
Convert the decls of and b to be const char[] a = "a"; and you will get what you want to happen.
Pretty standard, strings in c++ are null-terminated; characters are not. So by using the standard compare method you're really checking if "b\0" == 'b'.
I used this and got the desired output:
if (my_string.substr(0,1).compare( 0, 1, &my_char2, 1)==0 )
std::cout << "WOW!" << std::endl;
else
std::cout << "NOPE..." << std::endl;
What this is saying is start at position 0 of the substring, use a length of 1, and compare it to my character reference with a length of 1. Reference
This question already has answers here:
How to concatenate a std::string and an int
(25 answers)
Closed 6 years ago.
int i = 4;
string text = "Player ";
cout << (text + i);
I'd like it to print Player 4.
The above is obviously wrong but it shows what I'm trying to do here. Is there an easy way to do this or do I have to start adding new includes?
With C++11, you can write:
#include <string> // to use std::string, std::to_string() and "+" operator acting on strings
int i = 4;
std::string text = "Player ";
text += std::to_string(i);
Well, if you use cout you can just write the integer directly to it, as in
std::cout << text << i;
The C++ way of converting all kinds of objects to strings is through string streams. If you don't have one handy, just create one.
#include <sstream>
std::ostringstream oss;
oss << text << i;
std::cout << oss.str();
Alternatively, you can just convert the integer and append it to the string.
oss << i;
text += oss.str();
Finally, the Boost libraries provide boost::lexical_cast, which wraps around the stringstream conversion with a syntax like the built-in type casts.
#include <boost/lexical_cast.hpp>
text += boost::lexical_cast<std::string>(i);
This also works the other way around, i.e. to parse strings.
printf("Player %d", i);
(Downvote my answer all you like; I still hate the C++ I/O operators.)
:-P
These work for general strings (in case you do not want to output to file/console, but store for later use or something).
boost.lexical_cast
MyStr += boost::lexical_cast<std::string>(MyInt);
String streams
//sstream.h
std::stringstream Stream;
Stream.str(MyStr);
Stream << MyInt;
MyStr = Stream.str();
// If you're using a stream (for example, cout), rather than std::string
someStream << MyInt;
For the record, you can also use a std::stringstream if you want to create the string before it's actually output.
cout << text << " " << i << endl;
Your example seems to indicate that you would like to display the a string followed by an integer, in which case:
string text = "Player: ";
int i = 4;
cout << text << i << endl;
would work fine.
But, if you're going to be storing the string places or passing it around, and doing this frequently, you may benefit from overloading the addition operator. I demonstrate this below:
#include <sstream>
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
std::string operator+(std::string const &a, int b) {
std::ostringstream oss;
oss << a << b;
return oss.str();
}
int main() {
int i = 4;
string text = "Player: ";
cout << (text + i) << endl;
}
In fact, you can use templates to make this approach more powerful:
template <class T>
std::string operator+(std::string const &a, const T &b){
std::ostringstream oss;
oss << a << b;
return oss.str();
}
Now, as long as object b has a defined stream output, you can append it to your string (or, at least, a copy thereof).
Another possibility is Boost.Format:
#include <boost/format.hpp>
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
int main() {
int i = 4;
std::string text = "Player";
std::cout << boost::format("%1% %2%\n") % text % i;
}
Here a small working conversion/appending example, with some code I needed before.
#include <string>
#include <sstream>
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main(){
string str;
int i = 321;
std::stringstream ss;
ss << 123;
str = "/dev/video";
cout << str << endl;
cout << str << 456 << endl;
cout << str << i << endl;
str += ss.str();
cout << str << endl;
}
the output will be:
/dev/video
/dev/video456
/dev/video321
/dev/video123
Note that in the last two lines you save the modified string before it's actually printed out, and you could use it later if needed.
For the record, you could also use Qt's QString class:
#include <QtCore/QString>
int i = 4;
QString qs = QString("Player %1").arg(i);
std::cout << qs.toLocal8bit().constData(); // prints "Player 4"
cout << text << i;
One method here is directly printing the output if its required in your problem.
cout << text << i;
Else, one of the safest method is to use
sprintf(count, "%d", i);
And then copy it to your "text" string .
for(k = 0; *(count + k); k++)
{
text += count[k];
}
Thus, you have your required output string
For more info on sprintf, follow:
http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/cstdio/sprintf
cout << text << i;
The << operator for ostream returns a reference to the ostream, so you can just keep chaining the << operations. That is, the above is basically the same as:
cout << text;
cout << i;
cout << "Player" << i ;
cout << text << " " << i << endl;
The easiest way I could figure this out is the following..
It will work as a single string and string array.
I am considering a string array, as it is complicated (little bit same will be followed with string).
I create a array of names and append some integer and char with it to show how easy it is to append some int and chars to string, hope it helps.
length is just to measure the size of array. If you are familiar with programming then size_t is a unsigned int
#include<iostream>
#include<string>
using namespace std;
int main() {
string names[] = { "amz","Waq","Mon","Sam","Has","Shak","GBy" }; //simple array
int length = sizeof(names) / sizeof(names[0]); //give you size of array
int id;
string append[7]; //as length is 7 just for sake of storing and printing output
for (size_t i = 0; i < length; i++) {
id = rand() % 20000 + 2;
append[i] = names[i] + to_string(id);
}
for (size_t i = 0; i < length; i++) {
cout << append[i] << endl;
}
}
There are a few options, and which one you want depends on the context.
The simplest way is
std::cout << text << i;
or if you want this on a single line
std::cout << text << i << endl;
If you are writing a single threaded program and if you aren't calling this code a lot (where "a lot" is thousands of times per second) then you are done.
If you are writing a multi threaded program and more than one thread is writing to cout, then this simple code can get you into trouble. Let's assume that the library that came with your compiler made cout thread safe enough than any single call to it won't be interrupted. Now let's say that one thread is using this code to write "Player 1" and another is writing "Player 2". If you are lucky you will get the following:
Player 1
Player 2
If you are unlucky you might get something like the following
Player Player 2
1
The problem is that std::cout << text << i << endl; turns into 3 function calls. The code is equivalent to the following:
std::cout << text;
std::cout << i;
std::cout << endl;
If instead you used the C-style printf, and again your compiler provided a runtime library with reasonable thread safety (each function call is atomic) then the following code would work better:
printf("Player %d\n", i);
Being able to do something in a single function call lets the io library provide synchronization under the covers, and now your whole line of text will be atomically written.
For simple programs, std::cout is great. Throw in multithreading or other complications and the less stylish printf starts to look more attractive.
You also try concatenate player's number with std::string::push_back :
Example with your code:
int i = 4;
string text = "Player ";
text.push_back(i + '0');
cout << text;
You will see in console:
Player 4
You can use the following
int i = 4;
string text = "Player ";
text+=(i+'0');
cout << (text);
If using Windows/MFC, and need the string for more than immediate output try:
int i = 4;
CString strOutput;
strOutput.Format("Player %d", i);