working with strings

i'm using the c++ string class
is there a function already written that works with words?
for example: string x="My dog has fleas"
int y; string z;
y = wordcount(x); // 4
z = word(x,2); // "dog"

you can access a count method of the string class.....

I think its string::length()

that counts characters, is there a function which counts words? (see example)

Sorry :rolleyes:

I dont know of such a function offhand

You could implement one easy by counting the amount of space char in a string........that's easy enough to do....

i wrote something (still very buggy), anyone wanna point out possible errors or better ways to do it?

Code:

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///////////////////////////////////
string word(int x,string& y) {
  int letter_count=0;  //in case somebody made count a global variable
  int word_count=0;
  int last_word_place=0;
  int seen_letter=0;

if (y.at(0)) {
 while (1) {
  while (++letter_count<y.length() && y.at(letter_count)!=' ')  if (isalpha(y.at(letter_count))) seen_letter=1;

 word_count++;
 if (seen_letter==0 && y.length()==letter_count) return 0;
 if (word_count==x || letter_count==y.length()) return y.substr(last_word_place,letter_count-last_word_place);
 last_word_place=letter_count;
}

}
}

int word_count(string& y) {

    int letter_count=-1;
    int space_count=1;

while (++letter_count<y.length()) if (y.at(letter_count)==' ')  space_count++;
                  // one to back it to the null-terminating char, another to the last char in the string
if (y.at(letter_count-1)==' ') space_count--;
return space_count;

}

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a compiliable version is gonna be attached:

did some changes, doesn't have problems now.

Code:

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string word(int x,string& z) {    //x is the word number
 if (z=="") return (string)"";
  string psz=z;    //create a temp, it'll go outta scope so nothing's altered


 while (psz.at(0)==' ')  psz.erase(0,1);                            //leading spaces
 while (psz.at(psz.length()-1)==' ')  psz.erase(psz.length()-1,1);  //trailing spaces
 while (psz.find("  ",0)!=string::npos)  psz.erase(psz.find("  ",0),1);  //extra spaces

 for ( ; ; ) {
  x--;
  if (!x)  return psz.substr(0,psz.find(" ",0));
  if (psz.find(" ",0)==string::npos)  return (string)"";  // ERROR: that word doesnt exist
  psz.erase (0,psz.find(" ",0)+1);
  }

}

int word_count(string& y) {

if (y=="") return (int)0;  // ERROR: an empty string sent
int space_count=1; //at least one word

string psz=y; //the temp will go out of scope

while (psz.at(0)==' ')  psz.erase(0,1);                            //leading spaces
while (psz.at(psz.length()-1)==' ')  psz.erase(psz.length()-1,1);  //trailing spaces
while (psz.find("  ",0)!=string::npos)  psz.erase(psz.find("  ",0),1);  //extra spaces
while (psz.find(" ",0)!=string::npos)  { space_count++; psz.erase(0,psz.find(" ",0)+1); } // count spaces as they are erased
return space_count;
}

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