I could use some help on my program

I'm making a string parser program to find specific words within large character arrays. Here's what I've got:

Code:

#include <iostream.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <conio.h>
#include <dos.h>
#include <windows.h>

char com[41];
bool key = true, sword = true, shield = true, cup = true; // Item statuses

void cls()
{
   COORD coordScreen = { 0, 0 }; // A bunch of Windows API crud, ignore
   DWORD cCharsWritten;
   CONSOLE_SCREEN_BUFFER_INFO csbi;
   DWORD dwConSize;
   HANDLE hConsole = GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE);

   GetConsoleScreenBufferInfo(hConsole, &csbi);
   dwConSize = csbi.dwSize.X * csbi.dwSize.Y;
   FillConsoleOutputCharacter(hConsole, TEXT(' '), dwConSize, coordScreen, &cCharsWritten);
   GetConsoleScreenBufferInfo(hConsole, &csbi);
   FillConsoleOutputAttribute(hConsole, csbi.wAttributes, dwConSize, coordScreen, &cCharsWritten);
   SetConsoleCursorPosition(hConsole, coordScreen);
}

void items() {
 cout << endl;
 if (key == true) { // If there's a key
  cout << "There is a key on the ground.\n";
 }
 if (sword == true) { // If there's a sword
  cout << "There is a sword on the ground.\n";
 }
 if (shield == true) { // If there's a shield
  cout << "There is a shield on the ground.\n";
 }
 if (cup == true) { // If there's a cup
  cout << "There is a cup on the ground.\n";
 }
 cout << endl;
}

void main() {
 int i = 0, n = 0; // For loop variables
 cout << "String Parser\nBy: Scott A. Hand" << endl;
 Sleep(750); // Pause
 cls(); // Clear the screen
 items(); // Initialize item status and screen
 cout << "Enter command.\n> ";
 cin >> com; // Get user input
 for (i = 0;i <= 40;i++) {
  if ((com[i] == 'g' && com[i+1] == 'e' && com[i+2] == 't') || com[i] == 'G' && com[i+1] == 'E' && com[i+2] == 'T') { // If the user has typed "get" anywhere
   cout << "You have typed 'get'" << endl; // Debugging statement
   for (n = 0;n < 40;n++) { // Loop to catch the argument
    if (com[n] == 'k' && com[n+1] == 'e' && com[n+2] == 'y') { // If the argument's "key"0
     key = false; // Means it shouldn't show the key.
     cout << "You picked up a key.\n"; // Statement to tell me that this works.
     goto goodbye; // Required to speed things up
    }
    if (com[n] == 's' && com[n+1] == 'w' && com[n+2] == 'o' && com[n+3] == 'r' && com[n+4] == 'd') { // If the argument's "key"0
     sword = false; // Means it shouldn't show the sword.
     cout << "You picked up a sword.\n"; // Statement to tell me that this works.
     goto goodbye; // Required to speed things up
    }
   }
  }
 }
 exit(0);
 goodbye:
 cout << "Goodbye!\n";
}

I try to indent, comment, space, etc. as much as possible. The problem is that it recognizes "get" but not "key" or "sword" it recognizes "getkey" and "getsword" though. I use Visual C++ 6.0 on Windows 98. Any help would be nice.

First problem is (apart from the void main) is that cin >> com; only reads one word from the input (it stops at a space).
So your attempt to decode the second word will always fail....

At the very least, you need to write some more functions to make like simpler - for instance, something which extracts words from the command typed in, rather than all those individual character tests.

I've used strtok in my example, but there may be other (safer) ways of doing this in C++, especially when you get into using say the string class for storing strings.

Here's an example

Code:

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

int main ( ) {

    // get input
    char com[80];
    // cin >> com;  this just gets the first word
    cin.getline( com, sizeof(com) );    // this gets a whole line

    // split input line into words
    char *words[80];
    int   nwords = 0;
    for ( char *p = strtok(com," ") ; p != NULL ; p = strtok(NULL," ") ) {
        words[nwords++] = p;
    }

    // print the words - or whatever
    for ( int i = 0 ; i < nwords ; i++ ) {
        cout << "word " << i << " is " << words[i] << endl;
    }

    // perhaps using strcmp to detect specific words
    // if ( strcmp( words[0], "get" ) == 0 ) { // get something }
    return 0;
}

And a command run....
get sword and key
word 0 is get
word 1 is sword
word 2 is and
word 3 is key

I think your problem is that the >> operator will stop reading when it hits whitesapce. If you want to be able to enter something like "get key", you'll have to use cin.get() or cin.getline() to read the input.