Char array in struct cuts out first letter - c++

Question

I'm just starting to learn c++ and in this whole pointer / arrays chapter I'm trying to code something to get a grip on those concepts. What I want my code to do is: 1) ask for a number of students, 2) ask for a name for each student, 3) assign an ID and name to this student in a struct, 4) print the student ID and names for verification.
The problem is the following.
Let's say for example I choose to type 3 students and type the following names:
JOHN
GEORGE
NICK
What the program prints back as student ID/Names will be:
0 JOHN
1 EORGE
2 ICK
It seems to cut the first letter of all names but the first one.
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
struct STUDENT
{
char chName[256];
int nID;
};
int main(){
//array tests
int i=0;
int nLoops=0; //number entered by user
STUDENT *pnStudents; //pointer to our student array
cout << "Enter number of students: ";
cin >> nLoops;
pnStudents = new STUDENT[nLoops];
for (i=0 ; i < nLoops ; i++)
{
cout << endl << "Full Name of Student " << i <<": ";
cin.ignore();
cin.getline(pnStudents[i].chName,255);
pnStudents[i].nID=i;
}
for (i=0 ; i < nLoops ; i++)
{
cout << pnStudents[i].nID << " " << *pnStudents[i].chName << endl;
}
system("pause");
return 0;
}

Answer 1

for (i=0 ; i < nLoops ; i++)
{
cout << endl << "Full Name of Student " << i <<": ";
cin.ignore();
cin.getline(pnStudents[i].chName,255);
pnStudents[i].nID=i;
}
In the first iteration of the loop, ignore() extracts a new line character that has been left in the stream by cin >> nLoops; call. istream::getline(), on the other hand, discards the trailing '\n' and so each subsequent iteration waits for and discards the first character of your input.
Move cin.ignore() just before the loop.

Answer 2

cin.ignore(); without an argument discards from cin, a stream of size 1.
istream& ignore ( streamsize n = 1, int delim = EOF );
Extract and
discard characters Extracts characters from the input sequence and
discards them.
Remove that. That seems to be the only thing in your code, which could eat one character away. Also, if you need to use ignore, use something like:
cin.ignore(256,' ');
^ ^ (number of char, delim)
If you are trying to ignore the character you took as input for nLoops, you need not do it in every iteration.