Making it harder than it is?

**MyntiFresh** · 07-10-2005

I'm trying to write a program where the user inputs a sentence, then outputs the number of vowels. But I'm trying to use a function "isVowel" where I first go through the sentence and return true for any vowel, and otherwise false. This is what I have... and I have a feeling I'm making this harder than it needs to be. Help?

Code:

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

bool isVowel(char);

int main()
{
	int sum;
	char vowel;
	string sentence;
	cout << "Enter a sentence" << endl;
	getline(cin, sentence);
	cout << "There are " << isVowel(sum) << " vowels in this sentence." << endl;

	return 0;
}

bool isVowel(char sum)
{
	sum = sum + true;
	if ("A" || "a" || "E" || "e" || "I" || "i" || "O" || "o" || "U" || "u")
		return true;
	else
		return false;
	
	return sum;
}

**dwks** · 07-10-2005

Code:

if ("A" || "a" || "E" || "e" || "I" || "i" || "O" || "o" || "U" || "u")

could be

Code:

if(strchr("AaEeIiOoUu", sum))

or, if you want to keep it your way, then do this:

Code:

if(sum == 'A' || sum == 'a' ...)

---new section---

Code:

sum = sum + true;

That doesn't do anything. In fact, it might be a syntax error.

You call isVowel() with a char, not a string/array. Either make it handle strings (and return int, not bool), or call it in a loop with each char in your string.

**dwks** · 07-10-2005

The variable sum, declared in main(), is not used.

**dwks** · 07-10-2005

[note]
strchr() searches the string, "AaEeIiOoUu", for a char. If it finds a match, it returns the address of the matching char. (This will be true in an if statement.) If there is no match, it returns NULL (false in an if statement).
[/note]

**~~ILoveVectors~~** · 07-10-2005

this might be a little overkill but how bout this

Code:

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <algorithm>

using namespace std;

int isVowel(string mystring);


int main()
{
	string vowelcheck;
	cout << "Enter a sentence  : ";
	getline(cin, vowelcheck, '\n');
	cout << "There are " << isVowel(vowelcheck) << " vowels in this sentence." << endl;
	cin.get();
	return 0;
}

int isVowel(string mystring)
{
	int numvow = 0;
	transform (mystring.begin(), mystring.end(), mystring.begin(), tolower);
	string::iterator forward;
	for(forward = mystring.begin(); forward != mystring.end(); forward++)
	{
		if(*(forward) == 'a' || *(forward) == 'e' || *(forward) == 'i' || *(forward) == 'o' || *(forward) == 'u' )
		{
			numvow++;
		}
	}
	return numvow;
}

**Rashakil Fol** · 07-10-2005

We could save ourselves from copying the string when passing it to the function, and we could save ourselves from having to compare with ten vowels and instead only compare five vowels by setting the lowercase bit on the character just before we compare. (Sort of like the previous solution, except that we do it just-in-time.) (And let's pretend that every character set is ASCII-like. :-) )

So this is similar to the previous solution -- it also uses count_vowels as the function name because isVowel is deceptively named.

Code:

#include <string>
#include <iostream>

using std::string; using std::cout; using std::endl; using std::getline;

size_t count_vowels(string & s);

int main()
{
  string s;
  cout << "Enter a line, please:\n";
  getline(cin, s);
  cout << "Vowel count: " << count_vowels(s) << endl;

  return 0;
}

size_t count_vowels(string & s)
{
  size_t ret = 0;
  string::iterator	p = s.begin(), e = s.end();

  while (p != e) {
	ret += (bool) strchr("aeiou", *p | 32); /* Adds 1 if vowel */
	++p;
  }

  return ret;
}

**MyntiFresh** · 07-10-2005

Originally Posted by ILoveVectors

this might be a little overkill but how bout this

Code:

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <algorithm>

using namespace std;

int isVowel(string mystring);


int main()
{
	string vowelcheck;
	cout << "Enter a sentence  : ";
	getline(cin, vowelcheck, '\n');
	cout << "There are " << isVowel(vowelcheck) << " vowels in this sentence." << endl;
	cin.get();
	return 0;
}

int isVowel(string mystring)
{
	int numvow = 0;
	transform (mystring.begin(), mystring.end(), mystring.begin(), tolower);
	string::iterator forward;
	for(forward = mystring.begin(); forward != mystring.end(); forward++)
	{
		if(*(forward) == 'a' || *(forward) == 'e' || *(forward) == 'i' || *(forward) == 'o' || *(forward) == 'u' )
		{
			numvow++;
		}
	}
	return numvow;
}

Thank you for your help. I understand things a lot better. But when I execute this, I have to enter twice. What do I need to change so that the rest of the program executes after i enter once?

**Rashakil Fol** · 07-10-2005

You don't need that cin.get(); line up there.

**MyntiFresh** · 07-10-2005

Originally Posted by Rashakil Fol

You don't need that cin.get(); line up there.

OK, got rid of that... but I still have to enter twice for the rest of the program to execute. Help?

**Rashakil Fol** · 07-10-2005

Did you recompile? It works for me.

**MyntiFresh** · 07-10-2005

The program works, yes. But after i input a sentence and push enter, nothing happens. It's only after I push enter again that it tells me how many vowels there are. Is it not doing that for you?

**hk_mp5kpdw** · 07-11-2005

This is what the count_if function is for:

Code:

#include <iostream>
#include <algorithm>
#include <string>

using namespace std;

struct isVowel
{
    bool operator()(char sum)
    {
        return sum=='A' || sum=='a' || sum=='E' || sum=='e' || sum=='I' || sum=='i' ||
               sum=='O' || sum=='o' || sum=='U' || sum=='u';
    }
};

int main()
{
    string sentence;

    cout << "Enter a sentence" << endl;
    getline(cin, sentence);

    cout << "There are " << count_if(sentence.begin(),sentence.end(),isVowel())
         << " vowels in this sentence." << endl;

    return 0;
}

**quzah** · 07-11-2005

Do a board search for 'isvowel' and have fun.

Quzah.

**Daved** · 07-11-2005

As said in another thread, hitting enter twice is probably due to a compiler bug.

Why are you using other people's code? Just fix your own, its not that far off. As you can see by ILoveVector's example, a good way to count the vowels is to keep a count that starts at zero, then loop through each letter in the string and compare it to the 10 possible characters (5 vowels upper and lower case). If the current character is a vowel, increment the counter.

What it seems like you are trying to do is combine an isVowel function and a count Vowels function, consider making them two separate functions. The countVowels function would loop through the string and the isVowel function would look a lot like your original code in the first post.

They are very good tools and things you should learn eventually, but I wouldn't turn in a homework assignment using transform or count_if. They are obviously too advanced for your current level, and your instructor might get suspicious that it's not your code.

**MyntiFresh** · 07-11-2005

Originally Posted by Daved

As said in another thread, hitting enter twice is probably due to a compiler bug.

Why are you using other people's code? Just fix your own, its not that far off. As you can see by ILoveVector's example, a good way to count the vowels is to keep a count that starts at zero, then loop through each letter in the string and compare it to the 10 possible characters (5 vowels upper and lower case). If the current character is a vowel, increment the counter.

What it seems like you are trying to do is combine an isVowel function and a count Vowels function, consider making them two separate functions. The countVowels function would loop through the string and the isVowel function would look a lot like your original code in the first post.

They are very good tools and things you should learn eventually, but I wouldn't turn in a homework assignment using transform or count_if. They are obviously too advanced for your current level, and your instructor might get suspicious that it's not your code.

Thanks for the advice Daved. This is what I've come up with. I think it's pretty close to what it needs to be.... but if anyone could point out my errors, I'd really appreciate it. I have to turn this in finished tomorrow and I really want to get what I'm doing here. Thanks.

Code:

#include <iostream>
#include <string>

using namespace std;

bool isVowel(string);
int countVowels(bool);

int sum;
char vowel;
int counter;
string myString;

int main()
{
	cout << "Enter a sentence" << endl;
	getline(cin, myString);
	cout << "There are " << isVowel(sum) << " vowels in this sentence." << endl;

	return 0;
}

bool isVowel(string myString)
{
	if ("A" || "a" || "E" || "e" || "I" || "i" || "O" || "o" || "U" || "u")
		return true;
	else
		return false;
}

int countVowels(bool)
{
	for (counter = 0, counter != false, counter++)
	{
		if (isVowel(myString) = true)
			counter = counter + 1;
		else counter = counter;
	}
	return counter;
}

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