Thread: Is there any way to prevent a char/int infinite loop?

The one that always occurs when you enter a character where the program is expecting an integer?

This is in a command line application using Standard C++ (not visual or anything like that).

why dont you change the int to a char?

Because I need to perform mathematical operations using user inputs...

You need to always check the status of the stream and loop on .good(), never .eof()

Code:

while(cin) {
    int x;
    while(!(cin >> x)) {
        cin.clear();
        std::string token;
        if(cin >> token && token != "quit") {
            cout << "expected integer, read \"" << token << '"' << endl;
        } else {
            cerr << "unrecoverable stream error while expecting integer" << endl;
           /****throw abort return or whatever, bail out here****/
        }    
    }
/*** x is valid here ***/
}

another example reading a number of ints into a vector in {2, 3,5} format

Code:

bool readvec(std::vector<int> &v, std::istream &is=std::cin) {
    char ch;
    if(is >> ch && ch == '{') {
        int n;
        while(is >> n >> ch && ch == ',') v.push_back(n);
        if(ch == '}') {
            v.push_back(n);
            return true;
        }
    }
    return false;
}

Data validation can be done reading everything into a string first, then validating the input, then converting to appropriated data type (int, float have built in data conversion functions). Alternatively, you can monitor stream methods (for example good(), fail(), clear(), ignore()) for appropriate input. Both approaches have their advantages and disadvantages. I'd suggest a board search as this topic comes up reasonably often.