getline not working right

i was working on some code and ran into some trouble. the getline function seems to be getting the data incorrectly.

i tried the cin.ignore(1) to fix the problem with using getline and >> in the same program, which allowed me to provide the input to the getline functions, but it ignored the first letter of the first instance of getline. (it got 'ilac' instead of 'Lilac', but worked perfectly for the rest of them).

now, when it is reading from the data file, it correctly gets the first tape_name, show date, location, but then it misses the show_name.

the rest of the data is offset after that and doesn't fit into the outputs.

here's the code for the input data:

Code:

---

void inputdata()
{
        ofstream outfile;
        outfile.open("tapes2.dat", ios::app);
        assert(outfile);

        string tape_name_temp;
        int month=0;
        int day=0;
        int year=0;
        int hour=0;
        int minute=0;
        string show_name_temp;

        cout<<"Please input the tape name: ";
        cin.ignore(1);
        getline(cin, tape_name_temp);
        outfile<<tape_name_temp <<'\n';
       
        cout<<"Please input the date in mm dd yyyy format: ";
        cin>>month >>day >>year;
        outfile<<month <<'\n';
        outfile<<day <<'\n';
        outfile<<year <<'\n';

        cout<<"Please input the hour and minute of the show in hh mm format: ";
        cin>>hour >>minute;
        outfile<<hour <<'\n';
        outfile<<minute <<'\n';

        cout<<"Please input the title of the show: ";
        cin.ignore(1);
        getline(cin, show_name_temp);
        outfile<<show_name_temp <<'\n';

        outfile.close();
}

---

and then here is the output of the program after it has had some data entered into the file:

datafile is 3 places.
tape name: ilac
show date: 12 1 2003
location: 3:30
show name:
tape name: Grounded for life
show date: -858993460 -858993460 -858993460
location: -858993460:-858993460
show name:
tape name:
show date: -858993460 -858993460 -858993460
location: -858993460:-858993460
show name:
Please input the tape name:

and attached is the complete code if anyone wants to compile it

oh, and here's the Myfuncs.h file too

use ignore() after getline()

ignore after getline in what part? the inputting to file part or the reading from file part?

When I read a file, I never use ignore(). But, if it works that way for yours, use ignore() after getline() for both.

Just had a quick look at your code,

Code:

---

void inputdata()
{
  // code
  cout<<"Please input the tape name: ";
  cin.ignore(1);
  getline(cin, tape_name_temp);
  outfile<<tape_name_temp <<'\n';
  // code

---

Does not your code do the following:

writes "Please input the tape name:"
remove first byte from input stream
read data from inputstream into tape_name_temp
write tape_name_temp

Move the cin.ignore till after the getline(...); and you should get the filename correctly.

any reason to use the first ignore() at all? I'd just delete it. I'd suggest using ignore() after calls to >> or get() or other istream methods that potentially leave terminating char or other material in the input buffer and before getline(). Doing it rotely before getline() can have it's own problems, as demonstrated.

I didn't take a very long look at your problem, but it might be a bug in the STL implementation used by Visual C++ 6.0. Check out this site and scroll down to the part about <string>

http://www.dinkumware.com/vc_fixes.html

or look at this one

http://support.microsoft.com/default...;en-us;Q240015

Once you apply their fix, you should be able to use getline without the ignore.

alrighty, i fixed those bugs.

one more question, is there any way to resize a vector during the program?

i ask because upon deleting an element from the data file, the vector must be one element smaller as well. same thing goes when i add an element to the data file, i need to re-open the file and get the data again, but i'm unsure how to re-create the vector with the new correct number of spaces.

>is there any way to resize a vector during the program?
Look up the resize() and clear() member functions of the vector class.

wow, got that done. now the program seems to be working pretty well! thanks for the help!

I open tapes2.dat with notepad it looks ok except cin.ignore(1); will delete the very first charactor entry when you dont need too.