Comparing a struct array...

I'm writing a program that reads some files. The first file contains a list of data for books, and the second file contains information for markets from where the books are bought. The first file has the information for the market that the particular book was purchased...

The whole purpose for is to sort the book list by market, which I had no trouble doing. It goes something like this:

Code:

---

for (c = 1; c < MARKETS; c++)
        {                               
                for (i = 1; i < BOOK_IN_LIST; i++)
                {
                        if (bArray[i].market == mArray[mkt].market)
                        {
                        input_to_file << bArray[i].item_name << endl;
                        }                                       
                }
mkt = mkt + 1

---

So it reads the nth market and checks the name against every market from the book data file, and inputs it to a file in sorted order with appropriate headers/footers.

The point where I'm drawing a blank is that some of the books do not have a market associated with it, or contain invalid text. If these markets are not in the book source/market file then I need to group them all together and list them as being invalid and needing to be fixed.

Any Ideas? I'm just suffering from (novice) programmer's block at the moment... haha.

Did you overload the == operator?

operator==
for market?

If this method doesn't work for comparing markets.

Why not just add an integer or something, whenever a book has a market.

Or better yet, check if bArray[i].market == NULL... to see if it has been set.

The market could have a "invalid" value, such as 0, for books that have no market.
(Since I assume market is just an integer of sorts, or something?)
If it's a class, then you can overload operator == and keep track of which books have a market or not (ie a member variable, m_HasMarket or something).

>>some of the books do not have a market associated with it, or contain invalid text

So I assume the 'market' field contains text type data (char array or string).

If 'market' is a string type class (CString, String etc) your code will work (as these classes define an equals operator) otherwise try 'strcmp' or similar (to compare char arrays).

I have added a flag to find books without a market. What you do with them is up to you.....

Code:

---

for (c = 1; c < MARKETS; c++)
{
        bFound=false;                               
        for (i = 1; i < BOOK_IN_LIST; i++)
        {
                if (strcmp (bArray[i].market, mArray[c].market) == 0)
                {
                        input_to_file << bArray[i].item_name << endl;
                        bFound=true;
                }                                       
        }
        //did we find a market?
        if(bFound==false)//no market
        {
                //handle no market found
        }
}

---

Is there a reason you are starting at one not zero? (C++ arrays start at 0 to num elements -1)