question on gets() function

I've never used this function before and am not quite sure how it works.
It's basically like a cin statement...correct?

I've got the following code in one of my programs...

cout << "Input the sentence... " << endl;
gets(pointer1);


When I run my program, it never allows the user to input any data. How do I get it to allow me to actually input my sentence?

Thanks in advance for any help,
Dave ([email protected])

>I've never used this function before
Good, don't start using it.

gets is very buggy, there is a function that fixes the problems of gets called fgets, here's an example that reads a string from the keyboard:

Code:

---

char array[SIZE];
fgets ( array, sizeof array, stdin );

---

However, C++ offers the cin.getline function which should be used instead of C functions to be consistent. The effect is the same.

-Prelude

I am no expert at this but hopefully this will help..

Code:

---


void main()
{
  #define buffersize 80
    char buffer[buffersize];
    cout<<"Enter any sentence:"<<endl;
    cin.getline(buffer, buffersize);
    cout<<buffer<<endl;
}

---

or if you can use just plain get()

Code:

---


void main()
{
  char ch;
  int i = 0;
  #define buffersize 80
  char buffer[buffersize] = {'\0'};
  cout<<"Enter any sentence:"<<endl;
  while((ch = cin.get()) != EOF)
  {
      cout.put(ch);
      buffer[i] = ch;
      i++;
  }
  for(int b=0; b != buffersize; b++)
  { cout<<buffer[b];}
 
}

---

>void main()
Congratulations, your program is undefined starting right here ;)
void main is wrong, main should return an int and nothing else otherwise the result will be undefined (aka illegal).

>while((ch = cin.get()) != EOF)
This won't work, you declared ch as a char yet EOF is a value that can't be held by a char. You also fail to check for boundaries in the loop, so the user could enter any amount of characters and the program will happily write it all to memory that you don't own.

Code:

---

#include <iostream>
#define buffersize 80
using namespace std;

int main( void )
{
  int ch;
  int i = 0;
  char buffer[buffersize] = {'\0'};
  cout<<"Enter any sentence:"<<endl;
  while((ch = cin.get()) != EOF){
    if ( i == buffersize ) {
      buffer[i] = '\0';
      break;
    }
    cout.put(ch);
    buffer[i++] = ch;
  }
  cout<<buffer; 
  return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

---

-Prelude

Here's another way to do get keypboard input and allow user to terminate at will:

cout<<"Enter any sentence. enter a tilde ~ to stop:"<<endl;
while((ch = cin.get()) != '~'){

That way to don't have to worry about the EOF business.

>That way to don't have to worry about the EOF business.
Can you be asolutely sure that a user will not need to enter a tilde as part of the input? I can be sure that EOF won't be :D

What type of input is used to end the program is up to the programmer, but consider ease of use as well as whether or not that input could by any stretch of the imagination be valid input. If it does end up being input that the user wants to process at some point, then you've got a broken program.

-Prelude

Hey Prelude..
What do mean by "void main()" is illegal.. void main is perfectly legal to start with. The main does not have to be "int" type. But if you use "int" as the data type, yes you must return a value. But if you use void then you do not have to.. Try it out and see if it compiles, as far as I know it will work. I have used void main() many times (not to say I am good programmer, far from that) sccessfully.
And about EOF. You can just use ^z in windows or in UNIX I believe ^d (not sure) which will break it out of the loop.

P.S. If I am wrong, my sincere apolgy and I would stand corrected.

It'll compile - that doesn't make it right, softcoder...

Prelude's right.

Quote:

---

What do mean by "void main()" is illegal

---

Yeah its not right, See here
Mind you all my course material shows main declared as void(makes me wonder what else they haven't updated). So its no wonder people still use it, I did until I came here.

Prelude:

I look forward to reading your posts, even when I don't agree with everything you say. Your knowledge base obviously exceeds mine.

However, I feel user friendly code takes precedence to flexibility of code. Unfortunately definition/implementation of EOF is system dependent (I have read that it is Control + Z in DOS and Control + D in UNIX). The user will therefore need to know what type of system they have in order to terminate input in the code using:

while((ch = cin.get()) != EOF)

At least with a very seldom used character and an upfront statement to user about the restrictions to it's use the user will know what to do. But in the end it is a matter of personal programmer preference.

I also note a bit of inconsistency in that while you say this in your discussion:

>while((ch = cin.get()) != EOF)
This won't work, you declared ch as a char yet EOF is a value that can't be held by a char.

you use the exact same line:

while((ch = cin.get()) != EOF)

in your code. Not that I have never contadicted myself. Au contrair....I've done it more often than I care to mention, and it is one of the reasons I post under unregistered.

Quote:

---

>while((ch = cin.get()) != EOF)
This won't work, you declared ch as a char yet EOF is a value that can't be held by a char.

you use the exact same line:

while((ch = cin.get()) != EOF)

in your code.

---

I think you'll find prelude declared ch as int which can hold EOF

Quote:

---

int main( void )
{
int ch;
int i = 0;
char buffer[buffersize] = {'\0'};
cout<<"Enter any sentence:"<<endl;
while((ch = cin.get()) != EOF){
if ( i == buffersize ) {
buffer[i] = '\0';
break;
}
cout.put(ch);
buffer[i++] = ch;
}
cout<<buffer;
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

---

Yup, C_Coder is correct. Prelude did declare ch to be an int. My apologies. Eventhough I may hide my "identity" behind unregistered, I admit my mistakes when I see them or when they are pointed out to me. Again, Prelude, my apologies for my error.