Thread: Getting a string

  1. #1
    Registered User
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    Getting a string

    Hi,

    So, basically I want to extract a sequence of characters (which is located between two other sequences that I've given) from a string.

    Code:
    char* str="abcdefghi";
    someFunction(str, "abc", "ghi"); 
    //this is the function that would do what I want. It would return "def"- the sequence that is located between the given strings. It's not necessary for it to be one function, it could be any technique that accomplishes what I want.
    Thank you.

  2. #2
    Kernel hacker
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    Look at functions like "strstr".

    Edit: I just realized that this is in the C++ section, in which case, perhaps you'd like to use the string class instead of char* for your string. In that case, functions find() and substr() are what you're looking for.

    --
    Mats

  3. #3
    C++ Witch laserlight's Avatar
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    I too would recommend using std::string with find() and substr(). However, how would you handle say, "abcdefghighi"? If you have a greedy matching, then the string in between the two others would be "defghi". For such a case, you might use rfind() instead of find().
    Quote Originally Posted by Bjarne Stroustrup (2000-10-14)
    I get maybe two dozen requests for help with some sort of programming or design problem every day. Most have more sense than to send me hundreds of lines of code. If they do, I ask them to find the smallest example that exhibits the problem and send me that. Mostly, they then find the error themselves. "Finding the smallest program that demonstrates the error" is a powerful debugging tool.
    Look up a C++ Reference and learn How To Ask Questions The Smart Way

  4. #4
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    strstr() gives me the address of a substring in memory. How do I get the substring's location relative to the whole string?

    EDIT

    I'll try to use the C++ variant if I won't find a way to do it C-style.

  5. #5
    Sweet
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    Here is an example of a std::string function that finds a string between strings

    Code:
    #include <iostream>
    #include <string>
    
    std::string StringBetween(const std::string &findString, const std::string startString, const std::string endString)
    {
    	//Grab the length of the first string for moving the index
    	size_t startLength = startString.length();
    	size_t endLength = endString.length();
    
    	//Sanity Check: Cannot find between empty strings
    	if(0 == startLength || 0 == endLength){
    		return "";
    	}//if
    
    	//Find the index of the first string
    	size_t startIndex = findString.find(startString);
    
    	//If we can't find that string return blank
    	if(std::string::npos == startIndex){
    		return "";
    	}//if
    
    	//Increment the start index to get the contents between
    	startIndex = startIndex + startLength;
    
    	//Find the index of the end string
    	size_t endIndex = findString.find(endString, startIndex);
    
    	//If we can't find it return blank
    	if(std::string::npos == endIndex){
    		return "";
    	}//if
    
    	//We found our string within our indexes return it back
    	return findString.substr(startIndex, endIndex - startIndex);
    }
    
    int main()
    {
    	//The string to search between
    	std::string findString = "abcdefghi";
    
    	//The string that will contain the items between strings
    	std::string subString = StringBetween(findString, "abc", "ghi");
    
    	//Output the result
    	std::cout<<subString;
    
    	//"Wait" for input
    	std::cin.get();
    }

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