Alternative to switch

[XeonFlare]

Hello Forum,

I had an idea for a program that asked the user how many 'participant's they had and then asked them to input 'values' for each of those participants. Due to my 'n00bish' nature the only solution I have would have me writing case scenarios until the end of time. Please save me for this awful fate and suggest an alternative to an eternity of typing.

  
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <cmath> 

int main(void) {

using std::cout; 
using std::cin; 
using std::string; 

int casescenario;
float a;
float b; 
float c; 

cout << "Please enter number of participants"; 
cin >> casescenario; 

switch (casescenario) {

case 1:
     cout << "you have one participant\n";
     cout << "enter the value of that participant"; 
     cin >> a; 
     cout << "you participant's value is" << a; 
case 2: 
     cout << "you have two participants\n"; 
     cout << "enter value for participant 1";
     cin >> a;
     cout << "enter value for participant 2"; 
     cin >> b; 
     cout << (a+b)<< "\n" << "Is the value of your participant's\n";
     break;
case 3: 
     cout << "you have three participants\n"; 
     cout << "enter value for participant 1"; 
     cin >> a; 
     cout << "enter value for participant 2"; 
     cin >> b; 
     cout << "enter value for participant 3"; 
     cin >> c; 
     break; 
     }
system ("pause"); 
return 0; 

}  

The switch statement obviously was never meant to handle this kind of scenario but I'm sure there is an alternative. I greatly appreciate any help on this. I am currently working on a book to learn C++ but I'm adopting these side projects to keep things fresh and address my curiousity.

Best Regards,

Xeon Flare

[manasij7479]

Use a loop.

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
int casescenario;
int x(1),y;
cout<<"Enter the number of participants\n";
cin>> casescenario;
float a[casescenario];
for(x=1;x<=casescenario;x++)
    {
        cout<<"Enter value for participant "<<x<<":";
        y=x-1;
        cin>>a[y];
    }
}

By the way, 'n00bish' doesn't mean you do not have a brain. Try to think. I am also a beginner.Best of Luck.

[XeonFlare]

Sorry if you thought the question was a by-product of thoughtlessness, I had been contemplating the problem and a loop never occurred to me to be a viable option but I stand corrected on that issue. Considering that I have never encountered loops in my reading, I am also not sure how to utilze the values that are entered for the 'participants'. Suppose I wanted to add all those values together...how might I do that?

[declan]

Here's a little piece of advice, for learning computer science: Ask yourself "what happens if I generalize this?". Though the problem here seems to be more that you simply haven't read enough, if you haven't seen loops yet. Loops are a pretty basic thing...

The answer to that is another loop:

int sum = 0;
for(int i=0;i<casescenario;i++){
     sum += a[i];
}

Please read up on loops and arrays.