how to split a sentence to words

hi guys..

i have few problems in splitting a line to words..

for example, say we enter an address to the system

say

56/90, claus street, birmingham

it should return

unit number : 54
street : claus street
town : birmingham

i'm new to c++ programming and i have no idea about strtok() function. after reading some books and internet searches, i tried it, with little success.

here's my effort (albeit a beginner one)

Code:

#include <iostream>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>

using namespace std;

int main ()
{

  char str[200];
  char * add;
  cout<<"Enter a String"<<flush<<endl;
  cin>>add;
  while (add != NULL)
  {
    cout<<"string is:"<<add<<endl;
    add = strtok (NULL, " ,.-");
  }
  system ("pause");
  return 0;
}

i'm just not sure about the delimiters.. how can i separate the sentence using the delimiters such as tab, space, or '/' key??

pls help

Code:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

int main ()
{
  char str;
  cout<<"Enter a string:"<<flush;
  cin >> str;
  char * pch;
  cout<<"You're splitting"<<str<<endl;
  pch = strtok (str,",.-");
  while (pch != NULL)
  {
    cout<<"%s\n"<<pch<<endl;
    pch = strtok (NULL, " ,.-");
  }
  system ("pause");
  return 0;
}

ok here's the latest i've tried.. but still not getting the right result..

any help?? pls?

1) You are inputting a single character (previous code attempted to input to an uninitialized pointer).

2) cin >> only reads input up to the first white-space character (use getline)

3) you are trying to split the word also at spaces (but street names and such can contain spaces). If you don't somehow escape characters that are also delimiters (if there is no clear format to the input), it might be impossible to determine which part of the string belongs where.

thanks for that anon..

still confused with this though..

In C++, you should use a istringstream and use >> into a std::string to read the line word by word.

thanks..

i did this minutes ago.. it compiles ok but i can't see the result as the windows error message pops out..

Code:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

int main ()
{
  char * add[200];
  cout<<"Enter a string:"<<flush;
  cin.getline(add[200], sizeof(add[200]));
  char *ptr = strtok(add[200], ","); // split the strig at the comma
  cout << "unit num = " << ptr << "\n";
  ptr = strtok( NULL, ",");
  cout << "street address = " << ptr << "\n";
 
  system ("pause");
  return 0;
}

You're placing 200 character pointers on the stack, none of which is initialized. Then you try to read data into the 201st character pointer, meaning that you first access beyond the limits of your pointer array, and then at random memory.

You just put down code and tweaked until you got no more compile errors, did you?

Get away from C-style strings. Until you've learned about memory management, you're not ready for them. In other words, forget about strtok. Use std::istringstream and std::string like I said.

hmm.. ok thanks

like this??

Code:

#include <iostream>
#include <sstream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;

int main()
{
    char add[200];
    cout<<"Enter an address:"<<flush;
    cin>>add;
    istringstream iss(add);

    do
    {
        string sub;
        iss >> sub;
        cout << "Substring: " << sub << endl;
    } while (iss);

    system ("pause");
    return 0;
}

but it stops after first line..

like if i enter 89, need street, greenwich.. it only returns
substring:89
substring:

press anything to continue.

Code:

cin >> add

There's your problem. The >> operator uses whitespace as a delimiter. Use getline instead if you want an entire line.

And get rid of that char array already!

Code:

#include <iostream>
#include <sstream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;

int main()
{
    string add;
    cout << "Enter an address:" << flush;
    getline(cin, add);
    istringstream iss(add);

    string sub;
    while(iss >> sub)
    {
        cout << "Substring: " << sub << endl;
    }

    return 0;
}

Also, system("pause")? Get a better IDE, like Code::Blocks or Visual Studio.

Code:

#include <iostream>
#include <sstream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;

int main()
{
    char add[200];
    cout<<"Enter an address:"<<flush;
    cin.getline(add, 199);
    istringstream iss(add);

    do
    {
        string sub;
        iss >> sub;
        cout << "Substring: " << sub << endl;
    } while (iss);

    system ("pause");
    return 0;
}

yes.. it works now.. thanks guys

// i have another small question.. how can i sort the address according to their components??

like 24, michigan street, michigan becomes

number = 24
street = michigan street
town = michigan
(instead of substring)

i think this is sufficient already, but i want to make the work look perfect.

how can i sort the address according to their components??

Don't split the string in a loop; instead, split it explicitly into variables, the print the variables however you want.

But now you've changed the problem, because now you want to split on commas, not spaces.

split explicityly..

hmm.. can you explain it a bit..