Thread: getline problem.

You will need to flush the input buffer. I suggest a search on the problem. You will find lots of answers to a common problem.

Code:

do{
    int choice = 0;
    cout << "Choose one of the options below:" << endl;
    cout << "1) Enter a customer" << endl;
    cout << "2) Exit the program" << endl;
    cin >> choice;

    switch(choice)
    {
    case 1:
        {
            cout << "You chose to enter a lead" << endl;
            //---------------------
            //Collect the details
            //---------------------
            string mainname;
            cout << "Name? ";
            getline (cin, mainname);

The problem alluded to by Elysia is in that first cin >> call. After you've entered 1 or 2 and pressed the "Enter" key, the 1 or 2 will be stored in your variable choice. The "Enter" key however is not extracted and remains in the input stream. By the time you get to the getline function, that newline is still in the input stream and is the first thing that gets extracted by the getline call. Since getline sees a newline it thinks that the user (you) entered something and moves on in the code to the next getline call (to get the address) and does not appear to let you enter anything for the name.

Mixing getline and straight cin >> statements in ones code is often problematic with beginners unless they realize what's happening and how to deal with it. A call to cin's ignore member function after every use of the stream extraction operator (>>) (before the call to the next getline) is usually all that it takes.

Thank you very much for explaining it so well to me.

Here is the working code incase it helps anyone in the future:

Code:

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;

int main ()
{

	do{
		int choice = 0;
		cout << "Choose one of the options below:" << endl;
		cout << "1) Enter a  customer" << endl;
		cout << "2) Exit the program" << endl;
		cin >> choice;
		cin.ignore();

		switch(choice)
		{
		case 1:
			{
				cout << "You chose to enter a lead" << endl;
				//---------------------
				//Collect the customer's details
				//---------------------
				string mainname;
				cout << "Name? " << endl;
				getline (cin, mainname);

				string mainaddress;
				cout << "Address? " << endl;
				getline (cin, mainaddress);

				string mainpostcode;
				cout << "Post Code? " << endl;
				getline (cin, mainpostcode);

				string maintelno;
				cout << "Telephone Number? " << endl;
				getline (cin, maintelno);

				string maindetails;
				cout << "Details? " << endl;
				getline (cin, maindetails);

				cout << "BreakPoint" << endl;
				break;
			}

		case 2:
			{
				cout << "You chose to exit the program" << endl;
				break;
			}
		}
	}
	while(true);

	system ("PAUSE");

	return 0;
}

Again, thanks very much !

Code:

		case 2:
			{
				cout << "You chose to exit the program" << endl;
				break;
			}
		}

You may want to modify case 2 so that it actually exits the program instead of just printing out a line of text

One of these days, we really do have a create an article about this phenomenon, since it is SO common.