getline problem

[TheCaptain]

I am currently working on a progect and I can figure somthing out. I wasnt going to post the mass amout of code I have so I wrote a small sample program with the same problem. Here is the code

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
	string name;
	char continueIt = 'Y';
	while(continueIt == 'Y')
	{
		cout << "Enter Name: ";
		getline(cin, name);
		cout << name;
		cout << "\nContinue(Y/N): ";
		cin >> continueIt;
	}

}

My problem is that the second iteration of the loop it skips over the getline and does not let me enter a new name.

[FoodDude]

I thought getline(cin, name) was phrased as cin.getline(parm1,parm2,opt parm3);

[TheCaptain]

Im not sure, the way I have it works for the first iteration but none after that. Am I missing a parameter that would stop this?

[hk_mp5kpdw]

This is a problem cause by mixing calls to getline with cin. It basically boils down to cin not extracting the trailing newline character from the input stream and then the next time getline gets called, it reads the newline left in the input stream and thinks the user entered an empty string (thinks the user pressed the "enter" key at that point). An easy solution is to call cin.ignore(); after the cin >> continueIt; call.

[edit]Also, if you happen to be using the MSVC 5/6 compiler, you may also want to make sure you apply the fixes to the known issues in the string header file by looking here: http://www.dinkumware.com/vc_fixes.html [/edit]

[TheCaptain]

Nice, it worked. Thanks.

[hk_mp5kpdw]

I thought getline(cin, name) was phrased as cin.getline(parm1,parm2,opt parm3);

There are different versions of the getline function. One, the one you are thinking of, is a member function of cin stream object and has the form you've shown above. The other version of the getline function is the one described in the string header file that is designed to work with string containers and can be used as TheCaptain has. That version also accepts an optional third parameter which has the same purpose as the optional parameter in the version you are thinking of.