Spliting std::string and a character array into two halves (efficiently) - c++

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.

Related

size and the type of object created by the vector string constuctor in C++

int numRows = 5;
string s ="hellohi";
vector<string> rows(min(numRows, int(s.size())));
I think it is using the fill constructor. https://www.cplusplus.com/reference/vector/vector/vector/
but I don't know it creates a vector of NULL string or a vector of an empty string ?
And what is the size of the NULL ?
And what is the size of the empty string? 1 bytes ("/0"char) ?
The constructor you're using will create empty strings. For example you can check with:
// check the number of entries in rows, should be 5
std::cout << rows.size() << std::endl;
// check the number of characters in first string, should be 0
std::cout << rows[0].size() << std::endl;
// now the size should be 11, since there are 11 entries
rows[0] = "hello world";
std::cout << rows[0].size() << std::endl;
I believe the size of NULL is implementation defined, you could find it with:
std::cout << sizeof(nullptr) << std::endl;
I get 8 as the size (which is 64 bits)
Similar to the nullptr, the size of an empty string is probably also implementation defined, you can find it like:
std::string test_string;
std::cout << sizeof(test_string) << "\n";
std::cout << test_string.size() << "\n"; // should be 0 since the string is empty
test_string = "hello world"; // it doesn't matter how long the string is, it's the same size
std::cout << sizeof(test_string) << "\n";
std::cout << test_string.size() << "\n"; // should be 11 since the string has data now
I get 32 bytes for the size. The reason the size of the string doesn't change is due to how it works behind the scenes, instead of storing data (most of the time) it only stores a pointer to the data (which is always a fixed size).

How do I take a character pointer of 20 characters to output the contents plus the extra whitespace?

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';
}

cout and String concatenation

I was just reviewing my C++. I tried to do this:
#include <iostream>
using std::cout;
using std::endl;
void printStuff(int x);
int main() {
printStuff(10);
return 0;
}
void printStuff(int x) {
cout << "My favorite number is " + x << endl;
}
The problem happens in the printStuff function. When I run it, the first 10 characters from "My favorite number is ", is omitted from the output. The output is "e number is ". The number does not even show up.
The way to fix this is to do
void printStuff(int x) {
cout << "My favorite number is " << x << endl;
}
I am wondering what the computer/compiler is doing behind the scenes.
The + overloaded operator in this case is not concatenating any string since x is an integer. The output is moved by rvalue times in this case. So the first 10 characters are not printed. Check this reference.
if you will write
cout << "My favorite number is " + std::to_string(x) << endl;
it will work
It's simple pointer arithmetic. The string literal is an array or chars and will be presented as a pointer. You add 10 to the pointer telling you want to output starting from the 11th character.
There is no + operator that would convert a number into a string and concatenate it to a char array.
adding or incrementing a string doesn't increment the value it contains but it's address:
it's not problem of msvc 2015 or cout but instead it's moving in memory back/forward:
to prove to you that cout is innocent:
#include <iostream>
using std::cout;
using std::endl;
int main()
{
char* str = "My favorite number is ";
int a = 10;
for(int i(0); i < strlen(str); i++)
std::cout << str + i << std::endl;
char* ptrTxt = "Hello";
while(strlen(ptrTxt++))
std::cout << ptrTxt << std::endl;
// proving that cout is innocent:
char* str2 = str + 10; // copying from element 10 to the end of str to stre. like strncpy()
std::cout << str2 << std::endl; // cout prints what is exactly in str2
return 0;
}

C++ const casting

I am trying to print the value of a const but it is not working. I am making a return to C++ after years so I know casting is a possible solution but I can't get that working either.
The code is as follows:
//the number of blanks surrounding the greeting
const int pad = 0;
//the number of rows and columns to write
const int rows = pad * 2 + 3;
const string::size_type cols = greeting.size() + pad * 2 + 2;
cout << endl << "Rows : " + rows;
I am trying to print the value of 'rows' without success.
You want:
cout << endl << "Rows : " << rows;
Note this has nothing to do with const - C++ does not allow you to concatenate strings and numbers with the + operator. What you were actually doing was that mysterious thing called pointer arithmetic.
You're almost there:
cout << endl << "Rows : " << rows;
The error is because "Rows : " is a string literal, thus is a constant, and generally speaking is not modified as you may think.
Going slightly further, you likely used + (colloquially used as a concatenation operation) assuming you needed to build a string to give to the output stream. Instead operator << returns the output stream when it is done, allowing chaining.
// It is almost as if you did:
(((cout << endl) << "Rows : ") << rows)
I think you want:
std::cout << std::endl << "Rows : " << rows << std::endl;
I make this mistake all the time as I also work with java a lot.
As others have pointed out, you need
std::cout << std::endl << "Rows : " << rows << std::endl;
The reason (or one of the reasons) is that "Rows : " is a char* and the + operator for char*s doesn't concatenate strings, like the one for std::string and strings in languages like Java and Python.

Comparing Character Literal to Std::String in C++

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