Thread: Parsing a string

Hello all,
I need help in trying to parse a string as part of my assignment. My function I have will receive a string and the values are each separated with forward slash (/) delimiters. The format of the string will be either of the following:

type/firstName/lastName/employeeId (for volunteer)
type/firstName/lastName/emloyeeId/rate/bonus (for fulltime employee)
type/firstName/lastName/emloyeeId/rate/hoursWorked (for hourly employee)

When I receive the string the user will enter something like:

HourlyEmployee/John/Smith/000002/25.25/10

Here is how my function code looks so far:

Code:

#include <string>
#include "StaffMember.h"
using namespace std;
#ifndef STAFFMEMBERPARSER_H

#define STAFFMEMBERPARSER_H

class StaffMemberParser
{
 
    public:
    static StaffMember* parseStringToMember(string lineToParse)
    {
    string stype, sfirstname, slastname, semployeeId, srate, shours; //I initialize the data here
    int pos, pos2, pos3, pos4, pos5, pos6;                           // because it would give me an error otherwise. 
    
        pos = lineToParse.find("/"); 
        stype = lineToParse.substr(0,pos);
        
        pos2 = lineToParse.find("/", pos+1); 
        sfirstname = lineToParse.substr(pos+1,pos2);
        
        pos3 = lineToParse.find("/", pos2+1); 
        slastname = lineToParse.substr(pos2+1,pos3);
        
        pos4 = lineToParse.find("/", pos3+1); 
        semployeeId = lineToParse.substr(pos3+1,pos4);
     
        if(stype == "Volunteer")
        {
           
        }
     
        if(stype == "FullTimeEmployee")
        {
        //pos5 = lineToParse.find("/"); 
       // srate = lineToParse.substr(pos4+1,pos5);
        }
        
        if(stype == "HourlyEmployee")
        {
       // pos6 = lineToParse.find("/"); 
        //shours = lineToParse.substr(pos5+1);
        }
        
        cout << "Type\t\t" << stype << endl;
        cout << "Firstname\t\t" << sfirstname << endl;
        cout << "Lastname\t\t" << slastname << endl;
        cout << "EmployeeId\t\t" << semployeeId << endl;
        cout << "Rate\t\t" << srate << endl;
        cout << "Hours\t\t" << shours << endl;

    }
};
#endif

At the end of the function I'll test it with cout to make sure it parsed the values correctly.

So when I test it, I enter "HourlyEmployee/John/Smith/000002/25.25/10" as the string.

And the output I get is this:

Code:

Type            HourlyEmployee                                                                                                                                                       
Firstname               John/Smith/000002/2                                                                                                                                          
Lastname                Smith/000002/25.25/10                                                                                                                                        
EmployeeId              000002/25.25/10                                                                                                                                              
Rate                                                                                                                                                                                 
Hours

It parses the Type correctly , but I can't figure out why it wont work with the rest. Any ideas?

Originally Posted by stahta01

Read up on substr string::substr - C++ Reference

The second param is length you are passing index instead.

Tim S.

So my first parameter is right? How would I get the length up to the next delimiter?

Originally Posted by stahta01

length is almost pos2-pos1 you will likely need to subtract 1.

Thank you.

You really should consider using a stringstream to parse that string, and why the static member function in a separate class? Where are you returning the value you promised (the Staffmember*)? This "function" really looks like it should be a member of the StaffMember class instead of in it's own class. Also note that in C++ not everything must be in some random class.