Question About Strings

[ADTR2012]

I need to create a program that takes a users info for a check and displays it in a check form. Heres an example:

date: 2/23/2010
name: William Schmidt
amount, dollars: 23
cents: 30
payee: Office Max


your check:

William Schmidt 2/23/2010
pay to: Office Max $23.30
twenty three and 30/100 dollars

This is what I have at the beginning of the program but the program closes once the user inputs their name. Why is this? Do i need two separate strings? One for the first name and one for the last? This is my first day of strings so I am new to it.

int main(){
	string date;
	string name;
	int amDol;
	int amCent;
	string payee;

	cout << "Please input the following check information:\n"
		 << "date: ";
	cin >> date;
	cout << "name: ";
	cin >> name;
	cout << "amount, dollars: ";
	cin >> amDol;
	cout << "cents: ";
	cin >> amCent;
	cout << "payee: ";
	cin >> payee;

[Guy Shapter]

The reason it would be exiting as soon as you put in your name is because the cin>> command, when entering strings, only gets up to the first space / endline character. Once that is done, it assumes that is the only thing you will be doing with that variable, and goes to input the next input into the next variable. Because there is a space in the name, it reads "William" into name, then tries to input "Schmidt" into the integer field, which fails.

To correctly get the input, use getline(). An example of this is:

cout << "Please input the following check information:\n"
<< "date: ";
getline(cin, date);

This would allow the full line to be read into "date". Likewise, "getline(cin, name);

There are some compatability issues with using cin and getline() in the same program one after the other, check out their respective pages on this site to get the relative info.

[ADTR2012]

When I use getline(cin, date); it skips the line and goes straight to cout << "amount, dollars: ". Why is that?

Here's my new code:

int main(){
	string date;
	string name;
	int amDol;
	int amCent;
	string payee;

	cout << "Please input the following check information:\n"
		 << "date: ";
	cin >> date;
	cout << "name: ";
	getline(cin, name);
	cout << "amount, dollars: ";
	cin >> amDol;
	cout << "cents: ";
	cin >> amCent;
	cout << "payee: ";
	cin >> payee;

It skips line 12 and goes straight to line 13..

[Lynx876]

Using cin >> date is leaving a newline '\n' in the input buffer.

getline() has a default delimiter of '\n'. Which in your case, make's it skip that line.

Now, as date is a string, you should also use getline() for input there too!

Also,

ATDR2012 wrote:

There are some compatability issues with using cin and getline() in the same program one after the other, check out their respective pages on this site to get the relative info.

Check this:
http://www.parashift.com/c++-faq/istreams-remember-bad-state.html

[ADTR2012]

Okay the next problem I came across is that when I try to output the string payee it only outputs the first name because i didn't use getline again. But if I use getline it doesn't work because I have a cin for the integer variables before the string payee. What do i do?

	string date;
	string name;
	int amDol;
	int amCent;
	string payee;

	cout << "Please input the following check information:\n\n"
		 << "date: ";
	getline(cin, date);
	cout << "name: ";
	getline(cin, name);
	cout << "amount, dollars: ";
	cin >> amDol;
	cout << "cents: ";
	cin >> amCent;
	cout << "payee: ";
	cin >> payee;
	cout << "\n\nYour check: \n\n"
		 << endl;

	cout << name << date;
	cout << "pay to: " << payee;

[tj3434]

you could just do

string payeefname;
string payeelname;

cout << "Enter payee's first name: ";
cin >> payeefname;
cout << endl;

cout << "Enter payee's last name: ";
cin >> payeelname;
cout << endl;

cout << "Payee's name: " << payeefname << " " << payeelname << endl;

[ADTR2012]

But there is no way to do it as a single string?

[Lynx876]

Dude, if it's a string, use getline();

The default delimiter for getline is a newline '\n'.
And string entered will be saved, up until the user presses enter! Spaces included!

Input is a string ==> Use getline().

[ADTR2012]

I understand that you are supposed to use getline(); when it is a string but it skips the line because i have a cin >> for the integer variable the line before that.

[Lynx876]

I gave you a link for that problem, in my earlier post.

Lynx876 wrote:

Check this:
http://www.parashift.com/c++-faq/istreams-remember-bad-state.html

Here's a sample program I wrote for you to test. Comment out line 12 to see the change.

#include <iostream>
#include <string>

int main()
{
	int myInt;
	std::string myString;

	std::cout << "Enter and int: ";
	std::cin >> myInt;

	std::cin.ignore(std::numeric_limits<std::streamsize>::max(), '\n');

	std::cout << "Enter a string: ";
	std::getline( std::cin, myString, '\n' );

	std::cout << "Your int: " << myInt << '\n'
		  << "Your string: " << myString << '\n';

	return 0;
}

[ADTR2012]

Okay thank you I read that link earlier but I didn't fully undertand. So basically line 12 lets getline(); work after a cin >> operator right? Also quick question, why don't you just globally define "using namespace std;" instead of having std:: everywhere? Are there perks to using it your way?

[Lynx876]

It clears the input buffer, i.e. std::cin. Which is removing the '\n' that's left. When it is there, your program lands on the getline() function and see's it has a '\n' in the buffer, which is the delimiter( get up to this character ) and takes it as input.

And I literally just gave this link to someone else on here, lol.
http://www.parashift.com/c++-faq/using-namespace-std.html