getline

Code:

---

#include <iostream>
#include <string>

using namespace std;

int main()
{
        string name;

        cout << "Enter a name" << endl;

        getline(cin, name);

        cout << "The name you entered is "
                << name << endl;

        return 0;
}

---

Why do I have to press enter twice after I've entered a name? Is this something that's exclusive to Visual C++ 6.0?

Is getline(); recommended over cin.getline();, by the way?

Quote:

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Originally posted by volk
Is getline(); recommended over cin.getline();, by the way?

---

getline() is for strings and cin.getline() is for char arrays.

as for the press enter twice thing, search the board. there is a fix for it for vc++ 6.

The hit return twice problem with getline() is a VC++ bug. You can read about it and get the fix at the MS website:

http://support.microsoft.com/default...;EN-US;q240015

Unfortunately, MS doesn't tell you what the file name is that contains the bug or where it's located. I hunted it down, and on my computer it's here:

C:\Program Files\C++Microsoft Visual Studio\VC98\Include\String

once again theres a better alternative than microsoft for info on their products.

Quote:

---

Fix to <string>
The header <string> contains a definition for template function getline. It has a lookahead problem -- typing a delimiter to end the input doesn't return control until you type yet another character. Change the code as indicated by the comment:

else if (_Tr::eq(_C, _D))
{_Chg = true;
_I.rdbuf()->snextc(); // replace snextc with sbumpc
break; }

---

via

http://www.dinkumware.com/vc_fixes.html

Why should I put up with that crap? I think it's time I get a new compiler. *sigh* Figures...Microsoft products.

And judging from the link RoD posted, there are way more bugs with VC++.

Hmmm, Borland maybe...

Hmmm, I hear Comeau is the best...

RoD,

I'm having a problem with getline() in the simple code below, and I was wondering if you could take a look at it. I am trying to read the first 5 char's from each line of an input file that looks like this:

david55555555555
sally66666666666666

but, my output is:

david

I can't figure out what's going on with getline() or the file pointer, so I put a tellg() statement in after the first read of 5 char's, and I get tellg() = -1???

Code:

---

#include <fstream>
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;

int main()
{
        char text[6];
        char word[6];
       
        ifstream inFile("C:\\TestData\\input.txt");
       
        inFile.getline(text, 6);

        cout<<inFile.tellg()<<endl;
       
        //discard the rest of the char's on the line
        inFile.ignore(1000, '\n');
       
        //read the first 5 char's on the next line
        inFile.getline(word, 6);
       
        cout<<text<<endl
                <<word<<endl;

        return 0;
}

---

im not that deep into it but i'll have a look at it.

I went and tried source code out on my computer. I ran into the same problems as you described. I tried using seekg(), to reset the file pointer after 'File.getline(text, 6)' was called. When tellg() was called it still returned '-1', thus I figured that the problem was most likely being caused by the getline function call. I then went and checked MSDN to see if they said anything about the subject, in my brief search I did not find anything was of use. I then tried replacing 'getline' with 'get', and it properly displayed the desired data. Here is a modified version of your code that should work.

Code:

---


#include <fstream>
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;

int main()
{
        char text[6];
        char word[6];
       
        ifstream inFile("input.txt");
       
        inFile.get(text, 6);
       
        cout<<inFile.tellg()<<endl;
       
        //discard the rest of the char's on the line
        inFile.ignore(1000, '\n');
       
        //read the first 5 char's on the next line
        inFile.get(word, 6);
       

        cout<<text<<endl
                <<word<<endl;

        return 0;
}

---

I hope that the modified code works as well on you computer as it did on mine.

-JLBShecky

Thanks for the response. However, I already know get() works. I'm trying to find out why getline() won't work. It's a problem I came across when I advised a poster to use getline(), but the person couldn't get it to work, so I tried it, and much to my surprise it wouldn't work for me either. I have VC++ 6.0 as my compiler, and someone else ran it on a different compiler and said it worked.

hmm....maybe we should bring it to the attention of Dinkum and see if its a bug?