How do I peform this to an array?

[Fredir]

I have an array of characters, for example:

"I am zack"

And want to substitute a th ("th") in place of every "z" in the array. Then I would have to store the result into another array.

Does anyone know of a way to do this? (I am just starting out)...

Thank you.

[force of will]

One way would be

	char *p = "This is zack";
	char *result = (char *)malloc(sizeof(char) * strlen(p) * 2); //multiplying by 2 because the worst case scenario would be a string in wich all characters are z

	int index = 0;
	int occurances = 0;

	for(; p[index] != '\0'; index++)
	{
		if(p[index] == 'z')
		{
			result[index + occurances] = 't';
			result[index + occurances + 1] = 'h';
			occurances++;
		}
		else
		{
			result[index + occurances] = p[index];
		}
	}


	result[index+1] = '\0';

[nadroj]

@ force of will
since this is in C++, it would be best to use C++ code. that is, using c++ string objects and c++-style dynamic memory.

and more importantly, its best not to give them the solution.

[Fredir]

The best way I have found to learn coding is by looking at codes and figuring out what they do, I just don't have all the synthax in mind to perform some algorithms, so I appreciate the suggestion.

However, i don't get some the first few lines of code(malloc...?). Yes, this is c++.

Also, I forgot to say the user is imputing(cin) the string, so strlen wouldn't really work.

I do have a way to get the length of the char array the user inputs by converting the array of a certain size (say 256) into a string and then getting the string's length.

So, at this point, I have the length of string "whatever user inputs".

with this information, can anyone provide any furthe advice?

[Salem]

Since the suggested solution contains at least one bug, you're probably better off not paying too much attention to it.

> Also, I forgot to say the user is imputing(cin) the string, so strlen wouldn't really work.
strlen has nothing to do with input, and strlen will work just fine on strings you input.
But since you mentioned C++, there are alternatives.

> with this information, can anyone provide any furthe advice?
Bugs aside, the posted "solution" is in the right spirit, try using the same approach yourself.

[force of will]

@ force of will
since this is in C++, it would be best to use C++ code. that is, using c++ string objects and c++-style dynamic memory.

and more importantly, its best not to give them the solution.

you're totally right, i was also in the C forums and was 2:00 AM my bad.
Didint use string objects because the Fredir told he was using an array of characters

Since the suggested solution contains at least one bug, you're probably better off not paying too much attention to it.

Tell me the bug (I'm also always learning so i would appreciate it :P )

[matsp]

Maybe this line:

result[index+1] = '\0';

But I'm not sure - I only spent like 30 seconds looking for a potential bug.

--
Mats

[force of will]

yap it should be

result[index+ occurances] = '\0';

[Salem]

You forgot to count the \0 in your malloc call.

This is C++, so you should really use new rather than malloc.

This is C++, so you should really use std::string rather than a char array/pointer.

[CornedBee]

The low-level algorithm is:

For every character
  if it is a 'z'
    then write "th" to the target
    else write the character to the target

How you want to implement it depends on your knowledge and your intention. Do you want to learn iteration? Do you want to learn about C++'s algorithms?

I'd implement it with std::transform(), Boost.Lambda and a std::back_inserter. But that's just me.

Edit: on second thought, I probably wouldn't do it that way.

[Fredir]

Thank you for the input everyone!

force of will, would you mind explaining what that last line is doing? I tried going one step at a time, but don't get its purpose.

Thank you once agian.

[Fredir]

Ok, here is the code I have right now and it is not working. I would appreciate if anyone can let me know what is wrong with it:

#include "stdafx.h"
#include <iostream>
#include <string>

using namespace std;

#define MAX_SIZE 200



int main()
{

	int index = 0;
	int times = 0;

	char line[MAX_SIZE];

	cin.getline(line, 200);
	cout << "You entered: " << line << endl;
	string str(line);
	cout << "The size of the line is " << str.size() << " characters.\n";


	char result [256];

	for (int i=0; i < str.size(); i++)
	{
		if (line [i] == 's')
		{
			result[i] = 'z';
		}
		
	    else if (line[i] == 'r')
		{
			result[i + times] = 'r';
			result[i + times + 1] = 'r';
			times ++;
		}
		else 
		{
			result[i + times] = line[i];
		}

	}
	cout << result << endl;

//	char* dest = new char[newSize + 1];




	return 0;
}

[dwks]

You need to be more specific than "it's not working".

I think you're having problems because you don't NULL-terminate your result array. Put this just before you print result:

result[i + times] = 0;

		if (line [i] == 's')
		{
			result[i] = 'z';
		}
		if (line[i] == 'r')
		{
			result[i + times] = 'r';
			result[i + times + 1] = 'r';
			times ++;
		}

		else 
		{
			result[i + times] = line[i];
		}

That second if has to be an else-if; otherwise, when line[i]=='s', the first if statement as well as the else clause will bother be executed.

You don't have to create an std::string out of your string just to determine how many characters are in the string. strlen() works just fine on char[] strings.

cin.getline(line, 200);

Why not use MAX_SIZE?

cin.getline(line, MAX_SIZE);

[matsp]

I'm pretty sure part of the problem is that you are not setting the end to zero, which leads to printing of "garbage" after the actual string.

If there is any other problems, please tell us what the symptoms are.

--
Mats

[Fredir]

I am changing s into z and r into rr.

The code compiles but couts weird symbols.