Thread: Ignoring input.

I have been making simple programs to solidify my basic knowledge of C++. But while making this Binary converter I came across a problem.

I cant seem to figure out how to ignore input after 8 characters. I want to read in the first 8 characters the user inputs and discard the rest.

If cin.ignore is an option I cant figure out how to do it.

Code:

#include <iostream>

int BinToDec ( char *bits )
{
	
	int result = 0;
	int mask = 1;
	
	for ( int loop = 7; loop >= 0; loop -- ) {
		
		if ( bits [loop] != '0' && bits [loop] != '1' ) {
			
			std::cout << "Error: Invalid Input\n";
			return -1;
			
		}
		
		else if ( bits [loop] == '1' ) result += mask;
		
		mask *= 2;
		
	}
	
	std::cout << "\nResults:\n";
	std::cout << "Bin: " << bits << '\n';
	std::cout << "Dec: " << result << '\n';
	std::cout << "Ascii: " << static_cast <char> ( result ) << '\n';
	
	return 0;
	
}

int main ()
{
	
	char bit_array [8];
	memset ( bit_array, 0, 8);
	
	std::cout << "You must enter 8 bits. Q to exit\n\n";
	
	while ( 1 ) {
		
		std::cout << "\nEnter a binary value: ";
		std::cin  >> bit_array;
		
		if ( bit_array[0] == 'q' ) break;
		
		BinToDec ( bit_array );
		
	}
	
	std::cout << "\nGoodbye.\n";
	
	return 0;
	
}