Searching through Vector MyContainer

[Steven Zinn]

I am a No0b so please forgive my idiotic questions I may have. I am learning about Polymorphism, Classes/Objects, and vectors(containers). So, my professor decided to assign a program that uses it all.

It is supposed to be a command prompt style like this:

Welcome to the Containable Program

Please enter a command.
Type in 'help' for more info and 'end' to exit the program.
help

Available commands:
- end
terminate the program
- help
show all available commands
- print
show all available elements in the list
- addbook
add a book (title, author and price) to the list
- addword
add the given word (and its definition) to the list
- search word
display all items in the list that contains the given word
- save filename
save the current list to a given file

Containable, MyContainer, Word, Book, and commands then I have my main.cpp.

Here is the code I have so far:

1. main.cpp (Controls everything)

#include <fstream>
#include <iomanip>
#include <algorithm>

#include "Containable.h"
#include "Book.h"
#include "Command.h"
#include "MyContainer.h"
#include "Word.h"

int main() 
{
	string foundList;
	MyContainer bigList;
	Containable masterList;
	
	Command comln;
	string userInput;
	char charSearch[] = "searchword ";
	bool isDone = false;

	while (isDone == false)
	{
		cout << "Please enter a command. \n- Type in 'help' for more info and 'end' to exit program.\n";
		getline(cin, userInput, '\n');
		/*End program*/
		if (userInput == "end")
		{
			isDone = true;
		}
		/*Print out all available commands*/
		else if (userInput == "help")
		{
			comln.getCom();
		}
		/*Print out all inputs*/
		else if (userInput == "print")
		{
			cout << bigList.toString();
		}
		/*Add a word*/
		else if (userInput == "addword")
		{
			string word;
			string definition;

			cout << "What word would you like to define: ";
			getline(cin, word, '\n');
			cout << "What is the description: ";
			getline(cin, definition, '\n');

			Word * pWord1 = new Word(word, definition);
			bigList.add((Containable *)pWord1);
			
		}
		/*Add a book*/
		else if (userInput == "addbook")
		{
			string bookT;
			string bookA;
			string bookD;
			double price;

			cout << "Book title: ";
			getline(cin, bookT, '\n');
			cout << "Author(s): ";
			getline(cin, bookA, '\n');
			cout << "Description: ";
			getline(cin, bookD, '\n');
			cout << "Price: $";
			cin >> price;

			Book * pBook1 = new Book(bookT, bookA, bookD, price);
			bigList.add((Containable *)pBook1);

		}
		/*Search for a key word input*/
		else if (userInput == "searchword")
		{
			string keyWord;
			
			cout << "Search by 'key word': ";
			getline(cin, keyWord, '\n');
			bigList.search(keyWord);
		}
		/*Save file*/
		else if (userInput == "save filename")
		{
			ifstream file;
			file.open("file.txt");

			string z_Size = bigList.toString();
		
			file.close();

		}
		/*Check if input is valid*/
		else
		{
			cout << "\nInvalid input, try again.\n\n";
		}
	}

	cout << "Thanks for using my program!";
	cin.get();
	return 0;
}

2. Containable.h

#ifndef CONTAINABLE_H
#define CONTAINABLE_H
#include <iostream>
#include <string>

using namespace std;

class Containable 
{
public:
	virtual bool contains(string aWord)
	{
		return false;
	}
	virtual string toString()
	{
		return "Containable";
	}
};
#endif 

3. MyContainer.h (Holds every book and word added by user)

#ifndef MYCONTAINER_H
#define MYCONTAINER_H

#include <vector>
#include <iostream>
#include "Containable.h"

class MyContainer
{
private:
	vector<Containable *> m_list;
public:
	MyContainer()
	{

	}
	void add(Containable *c)
	{
		m_list.push_back(c);
	}
	virtual string toString()
	{
		Containable *p;
		int size = m_list.size();
		string info = "";
		for (int count = 0; count < size; count++)
			info += m_list[count]->toString() + "\n";

		return info;
	}
	vector<Containable *>  search(string searchWord)
	{
		vector<Containable *> foundList;
		int size = m_list.size();
		for (int count = 0; count < size; count++)
		{
			if (m_list[count]->contains(searchWord))
				foundList.push_back(m_list[count]);
		}
		return foundList;
	}
};
#endif 

4. Commands.h (List of commands)

#ifndef COMMAND_H
#define COMMAND_H

using namespace std;

class Command
{
public:
	void getCom()
	{
		cout << "\n{Available Commands}\n\n";
		cout <<  "- end\n\n";
		cout << "- help\n\n";
		cout << "- print\n\n";
		cout << "- addword\n\n";
		cout << "- addbook\n\n";
		cout << "- search word\n\n";
		cout << "- save filename\n\n";
	}
};
#endif 

5. Book.h (Holds book title, author, description, and price)

#ifndef BOOK_H
#define BOOK_H

#include "Containable.h"

class Book : Containable
{
private:
	string m_title;
	string m_author;
	double m_price;
	string m_bookDesc;
public:
	Book(string title, string author, string bookDesc, double price)
	{
		m_title = title;
		m_author = author;
		m_bookDesc = bookDesc;
		m_price = price;
	}
	virtual bool contains(string aSearchBook)
	{
		return false;
	}
	virtual string toString(string title, string author, string bookDesc, double price)
	{
		return Containable::toString() + "\nBook Title: " + title + "\nAuthor: " + author + "\nDescription: " + bookDesc + "\nPrice: " + to_string(m_price);
	}
};
#endif 

6. Word.h (Holds user words and definition)

#ifndef WORD_H
#define WORD_H
#include "Containable.h"
#include "Command.h"

class Word : Containable
{
private:
	string m_word;
	string m_definition;
public:
	Word(string word, string definition)
	{
		m_word = word;
		m_definition = definition;
	}
	virtual bool contains(string aSearchWord)
	{
		return false;
	}
	virtual string toString(string word, string definition)
	{
		return Containable::toString() + "\nWord: " + word + "\nDefinition: " + definition;
	}

public:

};
#endif 

Gee, thanks kbw.
Ok, new question. I figured out how to store the data the user enters into MyContainer; but I cannot figure out how I am going to search the words that are being searched for and print all to the screen. Like a key word search. How should I do this?
I keep getting containable printed to the screen because that is technically what I am asking for in Containable.h. How could I modify it to print all keywords?

[kbw]

I am a No0b so please forgive my idiotic questions I may have.

The only stupid question is the question you never ask.

Am I supposed to hold words and books in a file.txt?

The program prompts the user for input. It doesn't save it anywhere. I cannot say if it's supposed to or not.

The code style looks quite mature, not like a beginner at all.

[Steven Zinn]

I edited the question and my files

[kbw]

I cannot figure out how I am going to search the words that are being searched for

I expect this is where you'd call contains on Containable.

You don't need your own container that wraps vector<Containable*>. Containable things are objects, but there's no need for the container to be an object. If you think in those terms, you'll discover there are algorithms that process containers that may come in handy.
http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/algorithm

So, you need to implement contains on all those objects, then call it somehow.