validation

Hello,

I'm Ide Swager from Holland.

I just started programming in C++ but I'm pretty experienced in PHP.
I made a calculator, he worked perfect until I wanted a validation (to check if the user inserts letters instead of numbers)

I have made this code:

Code:

if (typeid(number1).name() == "double" && typeid(number2).name() == "double")
{
    \\ rest of script
}
else
{
    cout << "ERROR" << endl;
}

The number1 and number2 are doubles! (I checked it with cout << typeid(number1).name(); )

And it keeps saying ERROR!
Can you guys help me out?

what compiler... what's the error.

psychic suggestion, did you enable RTTI in your compiler?

If you have
double var;

And you do something like
cin >> var;

Then typing in "hello world" will NOT change the type of var - that's fixed by the compiler.

You need a whole new approach to validating user input.

isalpha() function, that is a good start for what you need.

Cycle through some characters and see if they are valid.

An example is always good:

Code:

char validate(char c) {
#define UMAPLENGTH 3;
char UMAP[] = "123";
int x;

 for(x=0; x < UMAPLENGTH; x++)
  if(c == UMAP[x])
   return c;

return 0;
}

This cycles through a list, in this case 1, 2, and 3. If your char is 1, 2, or 3, they will be returned normaly. Otherwise, they will be returned as a null character.

The easy way to do input validation is to check the return value of the read. If you are dooing input with cin >>, then just check the return value:

Code:

while (!(std::cin >> number1))
{
  std::cin.clear()
  std::cin.ignore(std::numeric_limits<std::streamsize>::max(), '\n');
  // Re-prompt.
}

You have to #include <limits> to use numeric_limits, or you can use any large number instead.

Validating character by character and using isalpha are extra work that isn't necessary when the functionality is built in to input streams.

I already tried isdigit() but that only works on char. And thanks for all the help!

My compiler is Borland. There's no error and I don't know what RTTI is :P I'm not far yet.

Your main problem is that you think C++ has the same weak typing as PHP. But C++ has strong typing: a variable is declared with a type and keeps it forever.

You can't compare strings with ==, unless you use the std::string class.

cin doesn't read invalid values into a double in the first place - but it goes into an error state if it can't read correct input, which you have to solve.

1) As Salem pointed out, what you are trying to do--even if it did work--would not properly validate the input. The type of a variable does not change, so checking its type does not in any way indicate what type of data the user entered.

2)

I just started programming in C++ but I'm pretty experienced in PHP.

C++ ain't PHP.

Examine the output from this program:

Code:

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main ()
{

	//Pointer to an array of characters(an array of characters is known
	//as a c-style string):
	
	char str[] = "double";
	const char* myPointer = str; //assigns the address of str to myPointer

	if(myPointer == "double") 
	{
		cout<<"yes"<<endl;
	}
	else
	{
		cout<<"no"<<endl;
	}

	//Pointer to a string literal:

	const char* myOtherPointer = "double";
	if(myOtherPointer == "double") 
	{
		cout<<"yes"<<endl;
	}
	else
	{
		cout<<"no"<<endl;
	}


	return 0;

}

The reason for the different output has to do with the differences between pointers, character arrays, and how C++ handles string literals(i.e. anything between double quotes), like "double".

In C++, whenever you have a string literal, e.g. "double", on the right side of an equals sign, the compiler takes the string literal, slaps a '\0' character on the end of it and stores it in memory somewhere, and then returns its address. For instance, if you do this:

Code:

const char* myPointer = "double";

then myPointer is assigned the address in memory where the compiler stored the string "double\0". Additionally, the compiler only stores the string literal "double" in memory the first time it is encountered. Subsequently, when the compiler sees "double" again, it just returns the address where it first stored "double" in memory.

Now, depending on what's on the other side of the equals sign opposite the string literal, different things happen. When a char array is on the left side of the equals sign, e.g.

Code:

char str[] = "double";

The compiler goes to the memory location where "double\0" is stored and copies it character by character to a new memory location and names it "str". Then, if you try to compare str to "double" with ==, you are actually comparing the addresses of str and "double\0", and since they are at two different addresses in memory, the addresses aren't equal. To compare the values at those addresses, rather than the addresses themselves, you have to use the strcmp() function.

On the other hand, when you have a pointer variable on the left side of the equals sign opposite the string literal, e.g.

const char* myOtherPointer = "double";

the address of "double\0" is assigned to myOtherPointer. So, if you subsequently compare myOtherPointer to "double" using ==, you will once again compare addresses, but this time they will be equal.

Because of the "erroneous" output you are seeing in your program, it is apparent to me that the name() function must be returning a pointer to a char array containing "double" rather than a pointer directly to the string literal "double".

You will constantly get tripped up by things like that in C++ until you gain a lot more experience.

I used daved's code and it works! , but 1 more thing: I have this code:

Code:

while (!(std::cin >> number1))
          {
            std::cin.clear();
            std::cin.ignore(std::numeric_limits<std::streamsize>::max(), '\n');
            cout << "error has occured.";
            system("cls");
          }

I expected system("cls"); would exit the program! But it doesn't: the while loop continues! How can I abort the program?

If you are in main(), just return 0 or return 1 or whatever you want to return (0 usually means success, so you would use something non-zero, but most people don't really use their program's return value anyway).

If you are in a separate function, you can use exit(0) or exit(1) or whatever, or you can return from your function some value or exception to indicate that the function failed so that the calling code can handle it and exit the program correctly.