Thread: Smarterchild

okay, I reformatted your code and got rid of the syntax errors for you. and if you ever mix spaces and tabs again I'll have to hire an assassin.

Code:

#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <string>

using namespace std;

int main()
{
	string name;
	string question;
	string subject;
	string file;
	string response;
	bool keepgoing=false;
	
	do
	{
		cout<<'\n'<<name<<" says: ";
		getline (cin, question);
		if ( question == "do you know?" )
		{
			cout<<"What do you want to know?\n\n"<<name<<" says: ";
			getline (cin, subject);
			file = subject + ".txt";
			ifstream c_file(file.c_str());
			if (!c_file.is_open())
			{
				cout<<endl<<"Sorry I do not know what "
					<<subject<<" is.\n\n"
					<<"Please enter a definition of "
					<<subject<<".\n\n"
					<<name<<" says: ";
				getline (cin, response);
				ofstream d_file ( file.c_str() );
				d_file<<response<<endl;
				d_file.close();
				cout<<"\nThank you! I now know what "<<
			       		subject<<" is.\n\nHow about another "
					<<"question!"<<endl;
				keepgoing = 1;
	               }
			else
			{
				c_file>> response;
				cout<<response
					<<"\n\nThere you go! Thats all I know "
					<<"about "<<subject<<"!\n\nSo let's "
					<<"get on to the next question..."
					<<endl;
				keepgoing = true;
			}
		}
		else if ( question == "who are you?" )
		{
	        	cout<<"I am Smarterthanchild, the world's only "
				<<"completely\nuseless talking robot and "
				<<"hopefully there are many\nin development\n\n"
				<<"So that's my life story, ask a question now."
				<<endl;
		        keepgoing = true;
	        }
        	else
		{
			cout<<"My grasp of English is so bad that I can't\n"
				<<"understand that!\n\nAsk me another question "
				<<"and we'll see if I can understand!"<<endl;
		        keepgoing = true;
	        }
	} while ( keepgoing );

	return 0;
}

edit: some of the changes you should notice right away (I don't even remember all the changes I made)

• better formatting (all tabs)
• slightly more efficient code (no need to call endl for every newline)
• changed keepgoing to a boolean variable

edit2: it's dinner time, so I can't work on it right now, but the first thing that catches my attention is that you're opening the file for writing without any mode flags. Probably not your main problem, but definately not a good idea.

Are the flag things that you mean things like ios::app?

Any help?

You're not supposed to bump threads.

Are the flag things that you mean things like ios::app?

Yes.

I was thinking about how to solve my problems at school today...is it possible to read into a character array to find out how long it is? Because I thought of character array [x]...get the input....find the length save x and save the array?

Would that wor and how can I implement that in what I have

Daved asked for example code...I have none...but what I want is for the user to input a phrase...it is then saved as a text file and can then be recalled when the subject is requested...I have it workign using strings apart from it will only read the first word of teh saved string

Originally Posted by bumfluff

Daved asked for example code...I have none...

Makes it difficult to help you without code.

Originally Posted by bumfluff

I have it workign using strings apart from it will only read the first word of teh saved string

Makes it difficult to be working without code. How'd you accomplish this feat?

Here is the part with problems:

Code:

do {
      cout<<endl;
      cout<<name<<" says: ";
      getline (cin, question);
      cout<<endl;

         if ( question == "do you know?" ) {
         cout<<"What do you want to know?"<<endl;
         cout<<endl;
         cout<<name<<" says: ";
         getline (cin, subject);
         endl;
         file = subject + ".txt";
         ifstream c_file ( file.c_str() );
               if (!c_file.is_open()) {
               cout<<endl;
               cout<<"Sorry I do not know what "<<subject<<" is."<<endl;
               cout<<endl;
               cout<<"Please enter a definition of "<<subject<<"."<<endl;
               cout<<endl;
               cout<<name<<" says: ";
               getline (cin, response);
               endl;
               ofstream d_file ( file.c_str() );
               d_file<<response<<endl;
               d_file.close();
               cout<<endl;
               cout<<"Thank you! I now know what "<<subject<<" is."<<endl;
               cout<<endl;
               cout<<"How about another question!"<<endl;
               keepgoing = 1;
               }
               else {
               cout<<endl;
               c_file>> response;
               cout<<response<<endl;
               cout<<endl;
               cout<<"There you go! Thats all I know about "<<subject<<"!"<<endl;
               cout<<endl;
               cout<<"So let's get on to the next question..."<<endl;
               keepgoing = 1;
               }
               }
         else if ( question == "who are you?" ) {
         cout<<"I am Smarterthanchild, the world's only completely"<<endl;
         cout<<"useless talking robot and hopefully there are many"<<endl;
         cout<<"in development"<<endl;
         cout<<endl;
         cout<<"So that's my life story, ask a question now."<<endl;
         keepgoing = 1;
         }
         else {
         cout<<"My grasp of English is so bad that I can't understand that!"<<endl;
         cout<<endl;
         cout<<"Ask me another question and we'll see if I can understand!"<<endl;
         keepgoing = 1;
         }
} while ( keepgoing == 1 );

So rather than using (example) x_file>>string I would use getline.

The >> operator is programmed to skip leading whitespace(spaces, tabs, newlines) and stop reading when it encounters whitespace.

getline() stops reading when it encounters a '\n' character. If you manually enter data into a file, when you hit return either an invisible \r\n(windows), \r(mac), or \n(unix) is entered at the end of the line. When you read from a file, C++ automatically converts the various line termination characters to a '\n', so getline() will stop when it reads the '\n'.

On the other hand, if you programatically enter data into a file, you have to enter a '\n' with your program when you want the line to terminate, e.g.:

outFile<<myString<<'\n';

I am sorry....I'm not exactly an expert yet anyway.

I am sorry....I'm not exactly an expert yet anyway.

What are you using to write your code? Most compilers have editors that automatically indent the next line after you type a '{'. So, you just type a '{' character and hit return, and your code is indented. Then when you type the closing '}', and hit return, the editor automatically slides it over to the left to match the first brace. So you end up with something like:

Code:

if(!inFile)
{
	cout<<"couldn't open file"<<endl;
	return 1;
}