Structures problem

[lucasnutz]

Hi everyone, I am learning C++ and I must write a program that prints the contents of a struct called Article. So far so good. Any article has the following characteristics:

-article number
-quantity
-description (20 characters)

The test program must create an article of which the contents are assigned at initialization level.

Printing the article is done with a print() function. This function gets the address of the structure as a parameter.

So far, this is what I've wrote:

//article_printing.cpp
//the program creates a struct "article" that contains the article number, quantity and description
//then it is printed using function print()

// Preprocessor for include files
#include <iostream>			// C++ style I/O using operator 
using namespace std;		// The C++ logical collection of functions
#define MAXLINE 20

struct article{
	int article_number;
	int quantity;
	char description[MAXLINE+1];
};

void print(article toprint){
	
	cout<<endl<<"The article has the following characteristics: "<<endl;
	cout<<"Number: "<<toprint.article_number<<endl;
	cout<<"Quantity: "<<toprint.quantity<<endl;
	cout<<"Description: "<<toprint.description<<endl;
}

void main() {
	//initialize variables
	article an_article;		//creates a struct called "an_article"
	cout<<"Please enter the article number: "<<endl;
	cin>>an_article.article_number;
 	cout<<"Please enter the quantity: "<<endl;
	cin>>an_article.quantity;
	cout<<"Please type the article description: "<<endl;
	cin>>an_article.description; //problem!!!! it only prints the first word entered.
		
	print(an_article); //calls the print function 
	}

Here are my questions:

FIRST: Am I creating the Article of which contents are assigned at initialization level?

SECOND: Why can't I set a description that has more than two words?

what am I doing wrong?

thanks.

[MrHutch]

I'm not quite sure what you mean by your first question.

As for 2, this should probably work:

// cin>>an_article.description;
cin.getline(an_article.description, MAXLINE);

[lucasnutz]

Thank you for your prompt reply iHutch105. I changed line 32 with your suggestion and it skips it all the way, so when printing, the description is printed empty.

Could anyone explain me why is this happening?

thanks

[clanmjc]

If by initialization level means construction then to answer your first question no.

cin>>an_article.article_number; is an assignment. If this is for a class it may mean you are supposed to pass these into a constructor (this is just a side note).

What do you mean it skips?

[lucasnutz]

it is just as if no code was written and just prints the cout line but it does not ask the user to input any text.

[clanmjc]

That is strange, try cleaning the solution and rebuilding. It is working for me.

[therockon7throw]

Hi
first change your struct, add a constructor for example;

struct article{

	article(int ar, int qu, const char* des){
		article_number = ar, quantity = qu ;
		strncpy(description, des, MAXLINE );
	}

	int article_number;
	int quantity;
	char description[ MAXLINE + 1 ];
};

than get the whole line by using getline, and call cin.ignore(); before you read

and change your print param to take a const reference like

void print(const article& toprint){//do somthing}

and finally your main should look like following

int main() {
	
 	int ar, qu ;
	string des;
	cout<<"Please enter the article number: "<<endl;
	cin>>ar;
 	cout<<"Please enter the quantity: "<<endl;
	cin>>qu;

	cout<<"Please type the article description: "<<endl;
	cin.ignore();
	getline(cin, des); //problem!!!! it only prints the first word entered.
	const char* p ;
	p = des.c_str();
	article an_article( ar , qu , p );//initialize variables
			//creates a struct called "an_article"
		
	print(an_article); //calls the print function 
    return 0;
}

make sure you add

#include <string>
 using namespace std;

hope it helps