String to Array

One thing I am wondering is how to I put a string of info into a multidimensional array?

Let me specify the array:

Code:

---

char name[10][80];

---

Now in one of my functions I need to input between 1 to 10 different names into that array.

I have tried three different ways, each being unsuccessful. Let me show you the ways I have tried. The first being the only one where I have got some result, but I need it to include spaces.

Code:

---

for (i = 0; i < 10; i++)
{
    cin >> name[i];
...
}

---

Obviously that would only input everything up until a whitespace character.

I tried the following two methods which I though would've worked, but didn't...

Code:

---

#include <cstring>
...

for (i = 0; i < 10; i++)
{
    gets(name[i]);
...
}

---

Code:

---

for (i = 0; i < 10; i++)
{
    cin.getline(name[i], 80, '\n');
...
}

---

Here is a snippet of my code and it's output with effort 2.

Code:

---

void enter()
{
    int i;
   
    for (i = 0; i < 10; i++)
    {
        cout << "\n\nEnter employee's name: ";
        gets(name[i]);
        cout << "Enter phone number: ";
        gets(phone[i]);
        cout << "Enter number of hours worked: ";
        cin >> hours[i];
        cout << "Enter wage: ";
        cin >> wage[i];
    }
}

---

Code:

---

Enter employee's name: Enter phone number:

---

One more question, what's the difference between gets() and cin.getline() anyhow? Is there a better one to use?

I'm probably just doing something extremely stupid, but I'm still new at this so take it easy on me :p

You need to eat the newline character after inputting the wage. So:

Code:

---

        cout << "\n\nEnter employee's name: ";
        cin.getline(name[i], 80, '\n');
        cout << "Enter phone number: ";
        cin.getline(phone[i], 80, '\n');
        cout << "Enter number of hours worked: ";
        cin >> hours[i];
        cout << "Enter wage: ";
        cin >> wage[i];
        cin.ignore(numeric_limits<streamsize>::max(), '\n');

---

>One more question, what's the difference between gets() and cin.getline() anyhow? Is there a better one to use?

If you're coding C++, use cin.getline(). I believe gets() also leaves the newline character at the end of the string. If you are using C, fgets() is preferred over gets().

Yes, I am coding in C++. The book I'm reading uses gets() and I read an online tut which uses cin.getline(). I was just wondering.

Code:

---

    for (i = 0; i < 1; i++)
    {
        cin.ignore(numeric_limits<streamsize>::max(), '\n');
        cout << "\n\nEnter employee's name: ";
        cin.getline(name[i], 80, '\n');
        cout << "Enter phone number: ";
        cin.getline(phone[i], 80, '\n');
        cout << "Enter number of hours worked: ";
        cin >> hours[i];
        cout << "Enter wage: ";
        cin >> wage[i];
    }
}

---

I do that and it works correctly. Thanks swoopy. Although I don't really understand what the cin.ignore() thing does. Could you please explain?

>Although I don't really understand what the cin.ignore() thing does. Could you please explain?

When you do:
cin >> wage[i];
There is a newline character left in the buffer from when you hit the <ENTER> key. Then when you loop the:
cin.getline(name[i], 80, '\n');
reads this newline character before you have a chance to enter the next name.

The cin.ignore() will read characters either until it sees a newline, or until the input buffer is filled. In this case you could probably just do:
cin.ignore();
Which only ignores one character, but the other is more general.

One correction: I said I thought gets() appends a newline character to the string. Actually it's fgets() which appends the newline character, not gets().

Cool stuff. Thanks for the assistance swoopy ;)