can this be condensed?

[almostmercury]

Hello all,

I'm new to this site and to C++ and I have a question...
Instead of having three while loops, is it possible to condense this code into something smaller without using anything more advanced than structures and loops?

//_getche and loops
#include <iostream>
#include <conio.h>
using namespace std;

struct date
{
	int day, month, year;
};

int main()
{
	date date1 = {0, 0, 0};
	char ch = 'a';
	
	cout << "Enter a date (eg. 31/12/2000): ";
	while ((ch = _getche()) != '/')
	{	
		date1.day *= 10; 
		date1.day += (ch - 48);
	}

	while ((ch = _getche()) != '/')
	{
		date1.month *= 10; 
		date1.month += (ch - 48);
	}

	while ((ch = _getche()) != '\r')
	{
		date1.year *= 10; 
		date1.year += (ch - 48);
	}
	
	cout << endl << "The date you input was: ";
	cout << date1.day << '/' << date1.month << '/' << date1.year;

	_getch();
	return 0;
}

All I want is to get input from the user in the form of "01/01/2008" and store each number into three separate structure members and then print the values onto the screen. I was hoping to save some lines by recycling the math inside the loops... so far this is the best I can do.

Any advice?

[Duthomhas]

How about a function?

Any time you find yourself writing the same code over and over (with small variations) it is worth considering whether or not you can offload it into a separate function.

Hope this helps.

[edit]
Hmm. Except for line 38, there is no compelling reason for you to be using _getch() over the more standard cin.get() or <cstdio>'s getchar().

Finally, you can easily do what you want with cin itself:

char c;
cin >> date.day >> c >> date.month >> c >> date.year;
cin.ignore( 10000, '\n' );

But if you are doing homework stick to the assignment...

Heh...

[almostmercury]

Thanks for the info... it's technically not an assignment, but I am using a book with exercises and I'm trying to do them with the concepts that have come up already. I've read ahead and considered a function, but they're technically in the next chapter. That's what the loops and structures restriction is all about.

However, the 3 lines of code you gave me are very interesting. I haven't seen the cin.ignore before so I'm going to experiment with that. I appreciate the help!

[Duthomhas]

Ah, "without using anything more advanced than structures and loops"...

Guess I should learn to read better... :-S

I think you did fine then. :-)