Checking if strings are equal

**jcafaro10** · 01-24-2009

In java I know that you can never say "==" to check if two strings are equal but in C++ you can. Here's what I am having trouble with:

Code:

                in.open(argv[i]);
		if(in.is_open())
		{	
			while(!in.eof())
 			{
 				getline(in,line);
 				cout << line << endl;
				if(line=="\n")
					cout << "found new line" << endl;
 			}
		}
		else cout << "CAN'T OPEN" << endl;
 		in.close();

I put new lines in the file by hitting enter, and it prints the new lines but never enters that if statement. Am I doing this wrong?

Thanks!

**laserlight** · 01-24-2009

That's because getline() removes the newline entered. I suppose you could check for an empty string instead.

By the way, use the return value of getline() itself to control the loop. The use of eof() is incorrect since the end of file condition is only reached after a failed read.

**jcafaro10** · 01-24-2009

Using the empty string worked. What's wrong with using eof? I'm not sure how I would use getline to control the loop. The code seems to work fine as is but since I'm new to C++ I'm always willing to learn.

Thanks!

**laserlight** · 01-24-2009

Originally Posted by jcafaro10

What's wrong with using eof?

Since the EOF condition is only set after a failed read, after reading the last line, EOF will not be set, so you will loop one more time than you should.

Originally Posted by jcafaro10

I'm not sure how I would use getline to control the loop.

You can do something like this:

Code:

while (getline(in, line))
{
    cout << line << endl;
    if (line.empty())
        cout << "found blank line" << endl;
}

**jcafaro10** · 01-24-2009

That looks prettier. Thanks

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