strings

**samtay** · 04-01-2004

1) how do i convert C++ strings to upper case/lower case?

2) say if i got two strings extracted from a paragraph,
pepper?
pepper.

how do i tell my program this 2 are the same strings?

**elad** · 04-01-2004

1) you have to change each char in the string to upper or lower case one at a time There is a thread about this topic on page two of the board started by Asjan. Preludes post at the bottom of the thread gives one version of how to do this if the strings are STL string objects. The other posts offer other ways to do it, too. I think the link below will get you there.

http://cboard.cprogramming.com/showthread.php?t=51230
2) you need to compare the strings. If they are C-type null terminated char array strings then you use strcmp() function from the cstring header file (or string.h header file if your compiler isn't up to date). If the strings are STL string class objects, then you can use the equals operator.

**samtay** · 04-01-2004

the problem is when i use the = sign, they treat the two strings as different

eg. peter pepper pick a peck of pepper.

the program will extract out

pepper
pepper. <- notice with a fullstop here.

how do i tell the program these tweo strings are same

**hk_mp5kpdw** · 04-01-2004

If you are concerned about the '.' character making your two strings unequal, then it should be easy to remove any punctuation or just specific types of punctuation prior to the comparison in order to make the comparison work as you want it to. You can use the remove to remove just a single type of punctuation or if you want to eliminate every form of punctuation then use remove_if.

Code:

#include <algorithm>
#include <string>
#include <cctype>    // For 'ispunct'
using namespace std;

...

string str;

...

// Either this to remove just '.' for example...

str.erase(remove(str.begin(),str.end(),'.'),str.end());

// Or this to remove all punctuation from the string...

str.erase(remove_if(str.begin(),str.end(),ispunct),str.end());

**elad** · 04-01-2004

beware, the = sign is the assignment operator, if the lhs has already been declared and the intialization operator if this is the declaration statement, and not the equals operator, which is ==. You can not use either the assignment operator or the equals operator for C-style strings, but you can use both for STL strings.

If you are using C-style strings rather than STL strings, then you can use isalpha() or strtok() to help strip away any punction marks from the strings before comparison. I'm not sure, but I think the remove() functions only work for STL strings.

**hk_mp5kpdw** · 04-01-2004

Originally Posted by elad

If you are using C-style strings rather than STL strings, then you can use isalpha() or strtok() to help strip away any punction marks from the strings before comparison. I'm not sure, but I think the remove() functions only work for STL strings.

I've tried it with straight c-style arrays and it works:

Code:

char array[] = "H.!ell,o' ;Wor?ld:"; // 19 chars long including NULL
cout << array << endl;
remove_if(array,array+19,ispunct);
cout << array << endl;

Outputs:

Code:

H.!ell,o' ;Wor?ld:
Hello World

sizeof(array) is still 19 after the remove_if operation but the NULL gets copied to the new effective end of the punctuation free portion of the string... i.e. if you tried to do this:

Code:

cout << array+12 << endl;

Then you would get the rest of the array:

Code:

or?ld:

**CornedBee** · 04-01-2004

And some more, probably, as the terminator is missing.

**elad** · 04-01-2004

thanks, hk_mp5kpdw. I don't use any of the STL algorithm functions yet. Time to get on the ball I guess.

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