string subscript out of range error

[Flotsa]

I tried searching this site for this, and while people have had this error, I can't seem to find the cause in my code.

I'm trying to get a last name from the user, validate it, and uppercase/lowercase the necessary letters. I'm using a function for this, and I know that the error is in the "for" loop thanks to system pause.

Can anyone tell me why I'm getting this error?

void GetName(const string question, const int MAX, string &name)
{
	int count;

	do
	{
		cout << question;
		cin  >> name;

		system("pause");

		name[0] = toupper(name[0]);

		system("pause");

		for (count = 1; count < MAX; count++)
		{
			name[count] = toupper(name[count]);
		}

		system("pause");

	} while (name.length() > MAX || name.empty());

	system("pause");

}

[wildblue]

If MAX is greater than the name length, the for loop will be trying to access elements of name that don't exist.

Edit: With a do..while loop, the code runs through at least once. It looks like your conditions - name is longer than max, or name is empty, should kick in before you get to the for loop?

[Flotsa]

Yep. Thanks, I just changed MAX to name.length() and It's working!

[PCrumley48]

Counting from 1 to MAX assumes that the length of string name will be equal to or greater than MAX. If the string is shorter than MAX, trying to read name[count > size of name] will result in the error you describe.

You need to limit the count in line 18 to the size of string "name" instead of MAX.