user input, ignore space array of strings

[l00kadiversion]

Sorry if this has been asked before, I did search and found similar questions but none with an array of strings.

I have a dynamically allocated array of strings, and I am trying to receive user input ignoring the whitespace. I have tried getline(cin,StringArray[0]); and this does not work, I have also tried is using a pointer rather than accessing the array through brackets.

string *billName;
    cin>>size;
    billName   = new string[size];
    getline(cin,billName[0]);

[Superdude]

billname is a pointer, not an array. It cannot be accessed with a subscript operator.

Why don't you use

string[10] billname;
getline(cin,billname[0]);

EDIT:
If the above statement is foolish, ignore it. I just reallized this might not be what you want.

[Zhuge]

@Superdude:
Actually, TC's syntax is correct. TC is simply using dynamic memory to allocate an array of an arbitrary size.

@TC:
There isn't a standard function to just ignore all whitespace, though you could write a function to go through the string after you have read it and remove any characters you don't like.

[cire]

l00kadiversion wrote:

and I am trying to receive user input ignoring the whitespace.

Could you explain what you mean by that? Preferably an example input and what you would like extracted.

[Smac89]

Not sure what you mean by ignoring white space. White space before the input, in the input or after the input???

This getinput function returns input until the EOF character

#include <cstdio>
#include <cctype>
#define MAXWORDS 100

int getInput(char *input, int=MAXWORDS);

int main() {
	char words[MAXWORDS];
	while (getInput(words));
	return 0;
}

int getInput(char *input, int maxlen) {
	int d;
	char * w = input;
	while (isspace(d=getchar())) //ignore space
	;
	if ( d == EOF ) {
		*w = '\0';
		return 0;
	}
	
	for ( *w++ = d ; --maxlen ; *w++ = d )
		if ( (d=getchar()) == '\n' or d == EOF ) break;
	*w = '\0';
	return *input;
}

[l00kadiversion]

Basically I'm trying to ignore the spacing between words. It's going to be a monthly bill program, and I'm trying to accommodate for bills that are more than one word, ie: Capital One. Thanks for all of your input so far.

[cire]

You were on the right track then. Why wasn't the code in the original post working for you?

#include <iostream>

int main()
{
    std::string name ;
    std::cout << "Enter bill name: " ;
    std::getline(std::cin, name) ;
    
    std::cout << "Bill name is \"" << name << "\"\n" ;
}

http://ideone.com/pLcdyB

[l00kadiversion]

Hey Cire, thanks. I believe my issue to be because I am trying to getline an array using subscripts. I may need to try it as a pointer rather than using the subscripts, since that is when it does not work for me.

[cire]

Given the code in the original post, I suspect your code suffers from another issue, namely that of mixing unformatted and formatted input. After you do cin >> size; a newline remains in the input stream that is encountered by the call to getline, causing the extraction of an empty string.

#include <string>
#include <iostream>
 
int main()
{
    unsigned nBills;
 
    std::cout << "How many bills will you enter?\n";
    std::cin >> nBills;
 
    std::string* bills = new std::string[nBills];
 
    std::cout << "Please enter the bill names.\n";
 
    std::cin >> std::ws ;  // Remove leading whitespace.
    for ( unsigned i=0; i<nBills; ++i )
        std::getline(std::cin, bills[i]);
 
    std::cout << "The bills you entered are:\n";
    for (unsigned i = 0; i < nBills; ++i)
        std::cout << '\t' << bills[i] << '\n';
}

Note line 15.

http://ideone.com/yCA4dB

[l00kadiversion]

Thank you very much cire, that worked perfectly.