first string in array of strings is being skipped - c++

Somehow when I run this code and it comes to inputting strings, the first string where i=0 is being skipped and it starts entering strings from A[1]. So I end up with A[0] filled with random stuff from memory. Can someone please point at the problem?
cin>>s;
char** A;
A = new char *[s];
cout<<"now please fill the strings"<<endl;
for (int i=0;i<s;i++)
{
A[i] = new char[100];
cout<<"string "<<i<<": ";
gets(A[i]);
}

That code is horrible. Here's how it should look like in real C++:
#include <string>
#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
int main()
{
std::cout << "Please start entering lines. A blank line or "
<< "EOF (Ctrl-D) will terminate the input.\n";
std::vector<std::string> lines;
for (std::string line; std::getline(std::cin, line) && !line.empty(); )
{
lines.push_back(line);
}
std::cout << "Thank you, goodbye.\n";
}
Note the absence of any pointers or new expressions.
If you like you can add a little prompt print by adding std::cout << "> " && at the beginning of the conditional check in the for loop.

Probably because you're using gets()... never use gets()
Use fgets() instead.
gets vs fgets

The problem is that cin>>s; just picks up the number you want and leaves a \n (newline from the enter press) on stdin that gets() picks up in the first iteration. This is not the nicest way to fix it, but to prove it write this line after that line:
int a = fgetc(stdin);
Check out a afterwards to confirm it has a newline.

Well, you probably get an empty string: when reading s you use formatted input which stops as soon as a non-digit is encountered, e.g., the newline used to indicate its input is finished. gets(), thus, immediately finds a newline, terminating the first string read.
That said, you shall never use gets(): It is a primary security problem and the root cause of many potential attack! You should, instead, use fgets() or, better, yet, std::getline() together with std::strings and a std::vector<std::string> >. Aslo, you should always verify that the attempt to input was successful:
if ((std::cin >> s).ignore(std::numeric_limits<std::streamsize>::max(), `\n`)) {
std::string line;
for (int i(0); i != s && std::getline(std::cin, line); ) {
A.push_back(line);
}
}

Related

How to take multiple line string input in C++?

I am learning C++. I want to take multiple line string as input but I can't. I am using getline() for it but it is taking only one line input. When I press enter for writing next line it stoped taking input and print the first line.
I want to give input like the example below
Hello, I am Satyajit Roy.
I want to make a program.
I love to travel.
But it takes only the first line input.
My code:
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
string s;
getline(cin, s);
cout << s << endl;
return 0;
}
Please help me to know how can I do that.
Thank you.
Either you write a loop to read individual lines and concatenate them to a single string, thats what this answer suggests. If you are fine with designating a specific character to signal the end of the input, you can use the getline overload that takes a delimiter as parameter:
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
int main() {
std::string s;
std::getline(std::cin,s,'x');
std::cout << s;
}
The user would have to type an x to end input, so this input
Hello, I am Satyajit Roy.
I want to make a program.
I love to travel.
x
would result in this output:
Hello, I am Satyajit Roy.
I want to make a program.
I love to travel.
Of course this won't work when the string to be entered contains x, which renders the approach rather useless.
However, instead of using a "real" character as delimiter you can use the EOF character (EOF = end of file) like this:
std::getline(std::cin, s, static_cast<char>(EOF));
Then input is terminated by whatever your terminal interprets as EOF, eg Ctrl-d in linux.
Thanks to #darcamo for enlightening me on the EOF part.
You can only read one line at a time with std::getline if you don’t provide your own delimiter. If you want to accumulate multiple lines, one at a time, you need a place to put the result. Define a second string. Read a line at a time into s with std::getline, and then append s to the result string. Like this:
std::string result;
std::string s;
while (std::getline(std::cin, s))
result += s;
You can take several lines using the code below if you know how many lines you will input.
int line=3, t;
string s, bigString;
for(int i=0 ; i<line ; i++)
{
getline(cin,s); // This is to input the sentence
bigString += s + "\n";
}
cout << bigString;
If you don't know how many lines you will input (Input from file until end of file) then you can check this.
string s;
vector<string> all;
while(getline(cin,s))
{
all.push_back(s);// This is to input the sentence
}
for(auto i:all)
{
cout << i << endl;
}

Strange things with c++ string input

#include <iostream>
#include <cstring>
using namespace std;
const int BUFFER_SIZE = 80;
void getstr(char* &str);
int main()
{
char* str;
while(true)
{
getstr(str);
if (!strlen(str))
break;
}
delete [] str;
return 0;
}
void getstr(char* &str)
{
char temp[BUFFER_SIZE];
cout<<"Enter a string(empty line to quit): ";
cin.get(temp, BUFFER_SIZE);
while(cin.get()!='\n')
continue;
str = new char [strlen(temp)+1];
strcpy(str, temp);
}
I have a string reading loop above and entering an empty line to terminate the loop doesn't work(after entering an empty line program stops responding to any input). But when I replace a loop in getstr with single cin.get() all works fine. What's wrong?
istream::get() sets failbit when empty string is read.
This makes cin.get() return EOF and this because you couldn't break the loop while(cin.get()!='\n').
You can use ios::clear() to clear failbit.
cin.get(temp, BUFFER_SIZE);
cin.clear(); // add this
while(cin.get()!='\n')
continue;
cin.get(char* s, size_t n) Extracts characters from the stream and stores them in s as a c-string, until either (n-1) characters have been extracted or the delimiting character is encountered: the delimiting character being either the newline character ('\n') or delim (if this argument is specified).
The delimiting character is not extracted from the input sequence if found and remains there as the next character to be extracted from the stream (see getline for an alternative that does discard the delimiting character).
A null character ('\0') is automatically appended to the written sequence if n is greater than zero, even if an empty string is extracted.
So here is the problem. cin.get() need to read at least 1 character. You can close stdin by pressing Ctrl+D and Enter, after that, your program will be finished.
And BTW, you are using new N times, but you have only 1 delete. You need to delete the previous buffer
If you are going to use C++, you should really use cin/cout in an objectively consistent manner. For example:
string name;
cout << "What is your name: ";
getline (cin, name);
cout << "Your name is: " << name;
What you are doing is kind of a C/C++ hybrid (char arrays in leu of string objects, but using std namespace).
Now, I know this isn't your question, but what you are doing right now is slightly unorthodox which makes answering your question a bit difficult without putting the code in to and editor and debugging it.
Given the c++11 tag, I assume that you really want C++ code. The great thing is that C++ simplifies this a lot.
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
int main()
{
std::string str;
while(std::getline(std::cin, str) && !str.empty())
{
// do stuff
}
return 0;
}

Does getline() not extract the delimiter?

So I was taking input some integers and then taking input some sentences.
This code works fine:
#include<bits/stdc++.h>
using namespace std;
main(){
int c,b,n,i;string s;
cin>>n>>b>>c;
for(i=0;i<n;i++){
cin>>ws;
getline(cin,s,'\n');
cout<<s;
}
}
Example:
3 3 3
This is weird
This is weirdDefinitely makes
Definitely makesNo sense
No sense
However, when I try to omit the cin>>ws inside the forloop, it doesn't work properly, eg this code segment,
#include<bits/stdc++.h>
using namespace std;
main(){
int c,b,n,i;string s;
cin>>n>>b>>c;
for(i=0;i<n;i++){
getline(cin,s,'\n');
cout<<s;
}
}
Example:
3 3 3
This is weird
This is weirdDefinitely makes
Definitely makes
..and terminates there instead of taking all three inputs.
Why is that? cin>>ws extracts all whitespace from the input but isn't getline() doing that too? So why does it not work properly when I omit cin>>ws in the forloop?
std::getline() extract characters until it extracted the first delimiter character (by default '\n'). The delimiter is not stored in the result but it is extracted. It does not extract whitespace in general or multiple delimiter characters.
As an aside: always check whether input works after trying to read a value.
In the example printed, the issue is is that after formatted input, i.e., using the >> operator, whitespaces are not extracted. That is, the first calls to std::getline() extracts the empty string terminated by the initial newline. It generally is necessary to extract trailing whitespace when switching between formatted and unformatted I/O. That is, You'd want code like
if (cin>>n>>b>>c >> std::ws) {
for(i=0;i<n;i++){
if (getline(cin,s,'\n')) {
cout << "i=" << i << ":'" << s << "'\n";
}
}
}
I can't recommend input operations without adding check for success. The output is changed to make it more easily visible what is going on: try the code with/without this particular std::endl to see what is happening.
When you use cin >> it doesn't remove any whitespace after the input. This means the newline that terminated the first 3 inputs is still in the buffer, waiting to be read by the first getline. Since there's nothing before the newline, the first getline delivered an empty string. Your output should have included a newline so you could have seen the empty line, then it would have made sense.
Originally the code you posted showed a cin >> ws just before the for loop which would have eliminated this problem.
The default delimiter for getline() is '\n', so there is no need to include that in the getline call, though, it should not change the functionality.
See for example Same as getline(input, str, input.widen('\n')), that is, the default delimiter is the endline character.
The change in formatting from the integer input to the getline() input leaves some whitespace (endl) after the integer as explained by #DietmarKühl.
You can change the getline() call to eliminate the delimiter to
getline(cin,s);
which will cause getline() to use '\n' as the default delimiter.
I have modified the 'n' variable to count and removed the other integers to make the code a little simpler to read:
#include <iostream>
int main()
{
int i; // index
int count; // number of strings to accept
std::string str;
std::cout << "Input the number of strings you would like me to process: " << std::endl;
std::cin >> count;
if (std::cin >> count >> std::ws) {
for (i = 0; i < count; i++) {
if (getline(std::cin, str)) {
std::cout << "i=" << i << ":'" << str << "'\n";
}
}
}
}
Cin doesn't extract all white spaces, it just gets the first word until the first white space. It is like having a getline with a space delimiter(not quite but close to).
Getline takes the whole line and has the default '\n' delimiter like mentioned above.
Ex:
string a = "Stack Overflow is awesome";
can give you Stack and getline will give you everything at that line

Reading sentences as string inputs from users

I have been trying to implement a simple code which takes a sentence as an input from the user, stores it in a string and displays it back.
Here are the issues:
1. When T = 1, the program exits immediately.
2. When T>1, the loop runs for only T-1 times.
I think the usage of cin to store the value of T is an issue here. Is the value of T entered being stored as a string due to some buffer capacity of cin?
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
int main()
{
int T;
std::cin >> T;
while (T--)
{
std::string song;
getline(std::cin, song);
std::cout << song << std::endl;
}
return 0;
}
How do you terminate the input that becomes T? With a newline. What happens with that newline after you read into T? It's still left in the input buffer. What will happen when you next call std::getline, what is the first character it will read? The newline, and what happens next? The loop iterates and then T is zero (for the first case where T was originally 1) and the loop and then the program exits.
The solution to this problem is to ignore characters up to and including the newline.
Add a getchar after cin as the \n after the input of T stays in buffer.
std::cin >> T;
getchar();
This is a strange way to do it. So you ask the user to tell the program, before any other input, how many lines will follow? Why not simply:
std::string s;
while (getline(std::cin, s)) {
std::cout << s << std::endl;
}
(This will simply echo every line (press enter to end the line) until end-of-file (Ctrl-d).
Either way, the problem with your code is the while (T--): so why don't you try to see what your T is, and what your getline gives you on each iteration? (I will let you figure it out on your own). Why not use the idiomatic:
for (int i = 0; i < T; ++i)
?
P.S. If you want to read sentences, and not lines, you might want to consider reading up to a delimiter (for example .). getline will do that for you, too:
getline(std::cin, s, '.');

Getline keeps on getting newline character. How can I avoid this?

Basically I first takes an integer as input and then test case follows. My each test case is an string. I am suppose to print the string back if the starting patten of string matches "HI A" and it is case-insensitive. I wrote the code below to accomplish to this. My problem is that when I press enter after each input, getline takes newline character as new input. I have tried to tackle this by using extra getline after each input but the issue is still there. Program gets stuck in the loop even though I have put a break condition. What am I doing wrong?
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;
int main(){
int N;
cin >>N;
string nl;
getline(cin,nl);
for (int i=0;i<N;i++){
string s;
getline(cin,s);
//cout <<"string"<<s<<endl;
int flag=0;
if ((s.at(0)=='h'||s.at(0)=='H')&&(s.at(1)=='i'||s.at(1)=='I')&&(s.at(2)==' ')&&(s.at(3)=='a'||s.at(3)=='A')) flag=1;
if (flag==1) cout << s;
//cout << "not " <<s;
string ne;
cout << "i="<< i<<endl;
if (i==N-1) {break;}
getline(cin,ne);
}
}
Here is sample input:
5
Hi Alex how are you doing
hI dave how are you doing
Good by Alex
hidden agenda
Alex greeted Martha by saying Hi Martha
Output should be:
Hi Alex how are you doing
ignore() function does the trick. By default, it discards all the input suquences till new line character.
Other dilimiters and char limit can be specified as well.
http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/istream/istream/ignore/
In your case it goes like this.
cin >> N;
cin.ignore();
Your cin >>N stops at the first non-numeric character, which is the newline. This you have a getline to read past it, that's good.
Each additional getline after that reads the entire line, including the newline at the end. By putting in a second getline you're skipping half your input.
So, your real problem isn't that getline eats newlines, but that your second getline(cin, ne) is eating a line...
And that is because you mistakenly think that you need two getline operations to read one line - or something like that. Mixing "linebased" and "itembased" input does have confusing ways to deal with newlines, so you do need something to "skip" the newline left behind frin cin >> N;, but once you have got rid of that, you only need ONE getline to read up and including the newline at the end of a line.
I am writing this answer with the hopes that it may help someone else out there that wants a very simple solution to this problem.
In my case the problem was due to some files having different line endings such as '\r' vs. '\n'. Everything worked fine in windows but then it failed in Linux.
The answer was actually simple. I created a function removeNewLineChar after each line was read in. That way the char was removed. The removeNewLineChar takes in the line that was read in and copies it over character by character into a new string but it avoids copying either of the newline characters.
Here is an example:
string trim(string line)
{
string newString;
for (char ch : line)
{
if (ch == '\n' || ch == '\r')
continue;
newString += ch;
}
return newString;
}
//some function reading a file
while (getline(fin, line)) {
line = trim(line);
//... do something with the line
line = "";
}
you just need to accept the fact that getline will give you '\n' at the end. One solution is remove '\n' after getting it. Another solution is do not write the additional 'endl'. for example, for your problem, you can use this code
int N;
cin >> N;
string line;
getline(cin, line); // skip the first new line after N.
for (int i = 0; i < N; i++) {
string line;
getline(cin, line);
string first4 = line.substr(0, 4);
// convert to upper case.
std::transform(first4.begin(), first4.end(), first4.begin(), std::ptr_fun<int, int>(std::toupper)); // see http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/algorithm/transform
if (first4 == "HI A") {
cout << line; // do not include "<< endl"
}
}
cin.ignore() worked for me.
void House::provideRoomName()
{
int noOfRooms;
cout<<"Enter the number of Rooms::";
cin>>noOfRooms;
cout<<endl;
cout<<"Enter name of the Rooms::"<<endl;
cin.ignore();
for(int i=1; i<=noOfRooms; i++)
{
std::string l_roomName;
cout<<"Room"<<"["<<i<<"] Name::";
std::getline(std::cin, l_roomName);
}
}
std::string line;
std::cin>>std::ws; // discard new line not processed by cin
std::getline(std::cin,line);
From Notes section https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/string/basic_string/getline
When consuming whitespace-delimited input (e.g. int n; std::cin >> n;) any whitespace that follows, including a newline character, will be left on the input stream. Then when switching to line-oriented input, the first line retrieved with getline will be just that whitespace. In the likely case that this is unwanted behaviour, possible solutions include:
An explicit extraneous initial call to getline
Removing consecutive whitespace with std::cin >> std::ws
Ignoring all leftover characters on the line of input with cin.ignore(std::numeric_limits<std::streamsize>::max(), '\n');