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Need help with getline()
getline() is not working, if I use it after some inputs, i.e.
#include<iostream>
using namespace std;
main()
{
string date,time;
char journal[23];
cout<<"Date:\t";
cin>>date;
cout<<"Time:\t";
cin>>time;
cout<<"Journal Entry:\t";
cin.getline(journal,23);
cout<<endl;
system("pause");
}
where as if I use getline() on top of inputs, it does work i.e.
cout<<"Journal Entry:\t";
cin.getline(journal,23);
cout<<"Date:\t";
cin>>date;
cout<<"Time:\t";
cin>>time;
What might be the reason?
Characters are extracted until either (n - 1) characters have been
extracted or the delimiting character is found (which is delimiter if this
parameter is specified, or '\n' otherwise). The extraction also stops
if the end of the file is reached in the input sequence or if an error
occurs during the input operation.
When cin.getline() reads from the input, there is a newline character left in the input stream, so it doesn't read your c-string. Use cin.ignore() before calling getline().
cout<<"Journal Entry:\t";
cin.ignore();
cin.getline(journal,23);
Adding to what #DavidHammen said:
The extraction operations leave the trailing '\n' character in the stream. On the other hand, istream::getline() discards it. So when you call getline after an extraction operator, '\n' is the first character it encounters and it stops reading right there.
Put this after before getline call extraction:
cin.ignore()
A more robust way of taking input would be something like this:
while (true) {
cout<<"Time:\t";
if (cin>>time) {
cin.ignore(); // discard the trailing '\n'
break;
} else {
// ignore everything or to the first '\n', whichever comes first
cin.ignore(numeric_limits<streamsize>::max(), '\n');
cin.clear(); // clear the error flags
cout << "Invalid input, try again.\n";
}
}
You're not checking stream status. The std::cin stream extraction operator (operator>>) can fail. When it does, the stream is marked as "bad" (failbit, badbit, or eofbit are set). Once "bad", all subsequent stream extractions on that stream will fail unless you clear the status.
Learn to be a paranoid programmer. Always check status of those formatted input operations. You could, for example throw an exception, or print an error message and exit. The one thing you shouldn't do is to simply assume that it worked.
Related
I want to write a program which prints Real Fancy if the given string contains "NOT" or "not" and regularly fancy if it doesn't contain not.
Ex: "this is not a string"
o/p: Real Fancy
"this is nothing"
o/p: regularly fancy
The problem is it prints Real Fancy if my first testcase input is "not is this line". But if the same line is given as input in second or above testcase it is not working and printing regularly fancy.Why? Any help?
Here is the code:
#include <bits/stdc++.h>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
int t;//No.of test cases
cin>>t;
while(t--)
{
string quote;//the input from user
string found="not";//word to be found
string temp="";
int not_found=0;
cin.ignore();
getline(cin,quote);
//Splitting the given line into words and store in a vector
vector<string> words;
istringstream iss(quote);
copy(istream_iterator<string>(iss),
istream_iterator<string>(),
back_inserter(words));
//Scan for "not" and if found break from for loop
for(int i=0;i<words.size();i++)
{
temp=words[i];
transform(temp.begin(),temp.end(),temp.begin(),::tolower);
if(temp==found)
{
cout<<"Real Fancy"<<endl;
not_found=1;
break;
}
}
if(not_found==0)
cout<<"regularly fancy"<<endl;
}
return 0;
}
The input pattern looks like
t
quote
quote
quote
...
The reading of t
cin>>t;
stops as soon as it finds an input that cannot possibly be an integer. This includes the newline character representing the end of the line, leaving the newline character in the stream to be consumed later (see Why does std::getline() skip input after a formatted extraction? for more on that problem). The skipping problem has been resolved with a
cin.ignore();
getline(cin,quote);
in the while loop, but that traded one bug for another. If there was no preceding formatted input to leave unwanted characters in the stream, cin.ignore(); will be throwing out the legitimate first character of the input.
This will happen on the second and subsequent reads. The input will wind up looking like
t //newline consumed by ignore
quote //newline consumed by getline. ignore consumes first character of next line
uote //newline consumed by getline. ignore consumes first character of next line
uote //newline consumed by getline. ignore consumes first character of next line
..
Solution:
Move it to after the input that leaves the unwanted character in the stream
cin>>t;
cin.ignore();
A better alternative is to the ignore so that you can make certain you get rid of all potential garbage on the end of the line
cin>>t;
cin.ignore(numeric_limits<streamsize>::max(), '\n');
This will read from the stream up to the maximum possible length of the stream or a newline is found and discarded, whichever comes first.
Always clean up after an operation rather than before the next. It keeps the related code closer together, aiding in readability, and protects you from cases where there is nothing from before to clean up.
I was looking at this post and few other. What happens if ignore() is called when input buffer is already empty? I observed in below code that if ignore() is called when buffer is already empty, it will not work and waits for some character to be entered first.
int main(void)
{
char myStr[50];
cin.ignore (std::numeric_limits<std::streamsize>::max(),'\n');
cout<<"Enter the String\n";
cin>>myStr;
// After reading remove unwanted characters from the buffer
// so that next read is not affected
cin.ignore (std::numeric_limits<std::streamsize>::max(),'\n');
}
cin.clear() after ignore() creates further problem if the buffer is already empty it looks. I guess clearing the buffer after cin() is safe. But what if I do not know the status of input buffer and I clear even when it is already empty? Do I have to check first if input buffer is empty using cin.fail() or something similar if any?
Secondly, cin itself may not be safe as space is not allowed. So getline() is suggested by some SO posts as given here. But does getline() also requires clearing input buffer or is it safe always? Does the code below work without any trouble (it works now, but now sure if it is safe code).
void getString(string& str)
{
do
{
cout<<"Enter the String: ";
getline(std::cin,str);
} while (str.empty());
}
Other SO references:
Ref 3
Breaking down main:
int main(void)
{
char myStr[50];
cin.ignore (std::numeric_limits<std::streamsize>::max(),'\n');
A bad idea, but you noticed that already. There must be a newline in the stream or you sit and wait for one. If the user's not expecting this behaviour you can expect to wait a long time and have a frustrated user. That's a bad scene.
cout<<"Enter the String\n";
cin>>myStr;
Also a bad idea, but for a different reason. >> doesn't know it should stop at 49 characters to prevent overflowing myStr. Bad things happen at that 50th character.
// After reading remove unwanted characters from the buffer
// so that next read is not affected
cin.ignore (std::numeric_limits<std::streamsize>::max(),'\n');
This one is safe. >> won't consume the newline, or any other whitespace and in order for the stream to hand over the data from the console someone must have hit enter and provided a newline.
}
A general rule of thumb is to not ignore unless you have reason to ignore, and if you have reason, ignore right away. Do not wait until before the next stream operation to ignore, be cause what if this operation is the first? Or the previous operation did not leave anything to ignore?. ignore after the operation that left what you want ignored in the stream. So
std::string getfirstword()
{
std::string firstword;
if (std::cin >> firstword)
{
cin.ignore (std::numeric_limits<std::streamsize>::max(),'\n');
return firstword;
}
return ""; // or perhaps
// throw std::runtime_error("There is no first word.");
// is more appropriate. Your call.
}
is good, but
std::string getfirstword()
{
cin.ignore (std::numeric_limits<std::streamsize>::max(),'\n');
std::string firstword;
if (std::cin >> firstword)
{
return firstword;
}
return "";
}
is an offence in the eyes of all that is holy. Don't do it.
As for getline, it gets a line. All of it up to the end of the file or the end of the line, whichever comes first. It also eats the end of the line for you so you don't have to worry about a stray newline harshing your mellow later.
If you only want part of the line, you will have to break it down. Typical usage for this is something along the lines of
std::string line;
if (std::getline(std::cin,line))
{
std::istringstream istr(line);
std::string firstword;
if (istr >> firstword)
{
// do something with firstword
}
else
{
// there is no firstword. Do something else.
}
}
getline reads everything up to and including the newline. It's no longer in the stream, so I'd consider this safe. You don't have to worry about garbage hanging around on the end of the line. You may have to worry about the next line, though.
So, I want to use the cin.ignore(200,'\n') to input a line and save it into a string without saving the \n as the string. But when I do:
cin.ignore(200,'\n');
getline(cin,name);
It asks me to input something twice, but I just want to ask me once and save it into name.
I've read something about the cin.clear(), but I think it's not what I need, or perhaps, I missunderstood what that clear does.
Thanks!
cin.ignore(n, ch) discards characters from the stream associated with std::cin until either n characters have been skipped, or until ch is seen. The cin.ignore(200, '\n'); is discarding the first input, up to the newline character. You're then getting a line, which will accept your second input.
You may need to use the cin.ignore(n, ch); construct if you want to read a line immediately after you perform a whitespace-delimited input operation, like
int i = 0;
std::cin >> i; // reads an integer, possibly leaving a '\n' in the stream
std::cin.ignore(200, '\n'); // reads and discards until a newline is seen
std::string name;
std::getline(std::cin, name); // reads a full line
In your case, if you haven't done any whitespace-delimited input, the cin.ignore is skipping over the first attempt to provide your line input. You should simply use std::getline immediately. The newline character at the end of the line is not appended to the string, but it is removed from the input stream.
The documentation for std::getline explains this in the "Notes" section.
For a more robust line input function, where you cannot be sure whether the previous input operation left a newline character (or whatever delimiter you're using) on the stream, you can do something like:
char ch;
std::cin.peek(ch);
if (ch == '\n') {
std::cin.ignore(1, '\n'); // or std::cin.get(ch);
}
std::string line;
std::getline(std::cin, line);
The peek member function will return the next character to be read, without removing it from the stream. If it's a newline, you can go ahead and ignore it. Otherwise, the getline call will read the entire line, including the character you just peeked at.
Alternatively, if you only want to consume whitespace, you can use the std::ws manipulator.
You don't need to use ignore() in this case. getline() will not put the new line character to the string.
The reason its asking you for an input twice is because the ignore() function is removing until your first 200 input characters or up to the newline(your deliminator) so the next getline() probably will not have anything to read thus asking you for input(unless of course your first input contains more than 200 characters,in that case it will read the remaining characters in the buffer).
std::getline() will not add the delimiter character to the string that is read, which is the newline character by default.
while(!(cin >> ar[i]))
{
cin.clear(); // clears bad input
while(cin.get() != '\n')
continue;
cout << "Invalid input, please enter valid scores";
}
The above code is from a much larger file. I copied this bit of a code from one of my textbooks and I don't really feel comfortable using it as I do not understand how this works.
I am using it as a measure to handle input errors.
So ar is an empty array of integers, if I decide to enter 'k', then
!(cin >> ar[i])
is true.
From here I clear the input buffer (I think that is correct, I'd like someone to confirm or dispute this please). The terminal then prints "Invalid input..."
Now if I just press Enter nothing happens, but isn't Enter the newline char? So shouldn't the code read
while(cin.get() == '\n'
?
while(!(cin >> ar[i]))
This tries to parse a value from cin and store it in ar[i]. By default, >> skips whitespace first, then sees if the characters in cin describe a legal value for whatever the type of ar[i] is. If a legal value is found, then cin stream state remains good, and its operator bool() const will kick in given the boolean not/! operation, such that the while loop will break.
If parsing fails though, the stream state will be set to one or more of:
bad (if there's some unrecoverable stream error, like stdin supplied over a network connection that gets disconnected),
fail (if the characters just didn't form a legal value for the type), or
eof (end of file, for a "proper" shutdown/close of the input, as supplied by ^D in UNIX/Linux, ^Z in Windows, and the end of input when a program's invoked as in echo input | program).
All the above modalities are described under "State Functions" here.
If the loop is entered due to any of the error conditions above...
{
cin.clear(); // clears bad input
...this does NOT clear any input data from the stream, but does clear the bad, eof and fail state flags, after which further input attempts can be made, though a stream that was in bad or eof state is likely to immediately reenter that state when further input is attempted (but not always - some OS may allow successful input after an eof conditions for std::cin if the user types/generates an EOF code then types actual text again...
while(cin.get() != '\n')
continue;
This tries to read characters from the terminal until a newline \n is encountered. The idea's clearly to clear out the rest of the presumed unparse-able input that might have led to a fail condition earlier. Sadly, if the problem was, or becomes, a bad or eof condition then this loop will hang the program, spinning burning CPU to no avail.
cout << "Invalid input, please enter valid scores";
}
If the problem was simply a mistyped value and no bad or eof condition, then the cout will prompt for further input.
Now if I just press enter nothing happens, but isnt enter the newline char?
Whenever the outer loop is executing cin >> ar[i] it will skip whitespace, including any extra newlines you type, until it sees some input (which may need to be a full newline-terminated line to get flushed by the terminal or program feeding it to the program), or a bad or eof condition. The inner while-loop is not there to get rid of empty lines - it's trying to discard the line with presumed non-numeric text in it.
Corrected code:
while (!(std::cin >> ar[i]))
{
if (std::cin.bad() || std::cin.eof())
{
std::cerr << "Fatal error on cin while reading numbers\n";
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
std::cin.clear();
std::cin.ignore(std::numeric_limits<std::streamsize>::max(), '\n');
std::cout << "Invalid input, please enter valid scores\n: ";
}
The goal of this entire code is to keep printing errors and requesting input until the user enters a valid number before continue further into the program.
The loop that the entire code is enclosed in...
while(!(cin >> ar[i]))
says to loop if the input in the cin stream is invalid. Since ar is an array of integers, the input would be invalid if it is not a number.
cin.clear(); // clears bad input
When the cin stream encounters invalid input, the program begins executing the loop and continues to this line of code. Since the stream encountered invalid input, it has a flag that says there is an error. This requires that you, as the comment puts it, "clear bad input." Basically what this does is get rid of this flag. If this is not done, the flag will remain in the stream and the program will encounter another error next time the cin stream is used, regardless of whether or not the user input is valid.
while(cin.get() != '\n')
continue;
When the program took the input from the user, it took the string, char, whatever was the invalid input, but left the '\n' in the cin stream. To prevent errors the next time the cin stream is used, the program must get rid of that '\n', along with anything else that was lefty behind. cin.get() reads only one char from the cin input stream and returns it. Since the return value of this function is not being assigned to anything, all this does is discard the char that was read. In the case that more than the '\n' was left behind in the stream, this loop checks the value of the read char before disposing of it. This way, the loop keeps executing while the char that is read is NOT '\n'. Or in other words, it loops until the char that is read IS '\n'. The only thing that continue does, is tell the program to skip the rest of the current iteration of the loop and start the next iteration. In this situation, this is equivalent to giving the loop an empty body. You could very well replace continue; with {} and the program would do the exact same thing.
cout << "Invalid input, please enter valid scores";
The program has cleared the flag in cin and has also cleared any data from cin that may have been left behind. Now that all the errors from the invalid input have been handled, there is only one more thing to do. It's time to notify he user that the input was invalid and request new input. If the user enters more invalid input, the loop repeats. If the user enters valid input, the program continues on to the next line of code.
This question already has an answer here:
What am I not understanding about getline+strings?
(1 answer)
Closed 7 years ago.
I've got following code:
system("CLS");
string title;
string content;
cout << "Get title." << endl;
getline(cin,title);
cout << "Get content." << endl;
getline(cin,content);
The problem is - application is not asking about tittle, I've got Get title, get content and then waiting for user input, it's not waiting for user input after get title.bDo I have to add any break or smth?
Or maybe, that isn't the best idea to read whole text line from user input?
If you have a cin >> something; call prior to your system() call.
For example, taking input into an integer. When cin >> myintvar; (or similar) then the integer is placed in myintvar and the '\n' gets sent along in the stream. The getline picks the \n up as indicative of the end of a line of input, so it is effectively "skipped".
Either change the cin >> to a getline()
or call cin.ignore() to grab the '\n'(or better, call a cin.ignore (std::numeric_limits<std::streamsize>::max(), '\n' ); to flush the input buffer-- but be sure you're not throwing away valuable input in the process).
I'd bet that you have something like a menu for selecting options ( as a numeric type ) and after that you try to read the lines.
This happens because after std::cin read some value the remaining '\n' was not processed yet, the solution would be to include #include <limits> and then put std::cin.ignore(std::numeric_limits<streamsize>::max(),'\n');
before your getline(cin,title);
It is because when you use getline() it ignores the newline at the end of the line and feeds it into the input queue, so when your getline function is called for next time it encounters the newline character discarded by the previous getline() and so it considers that as end of your input string. So thats why it doesn't take any input from you. You could use something like this
getline(cin,title);
cin.get();
hope this works.