Thread: Accepting Multiple Types of Input

Hello guys, well i just started making a Periodic Table Program. It is going to have an actual display of the table (text based for now), and it will also have you be able to look up an element from the Name (ex: Hydrogen), Symbol (H), or Element Number (1). Which is where i am finding a small problem.

Before i go into that i will just finish outlining the program. It also will have a help bit, and a function that does some Molar Calculations and other useful quantum calculations.

Back to the problem...

How can i get my program to work like this?

Lookup Element:

When it says that i want it to be able to take in either the number, symbol or name and look that up.

Now i think i know how i am going to go about looking up the actual info, but i dont know how to get that to take in 3 different types of information and differentiate between them.

I tried storing it into an array temporarily and then have it sort it out from there and have it transfer the information. However i couldnt get that to work either.

Thanks guys!

Have 3 different functions, or possibly overload the function for each of the search types.

Read them all as strings, then use std::map as a lookup table. Register the strings "Hydrogen", "H" and "1" to point at the same element (probably stored in an std::vector or something).