Newbie ... looping problem

I wrote this basic encrytion program and everything seems to work find until the end of the program when it asks the user if they want to restart the program.

It'll print out, "Enter a string no longer than 20 characters long:"... but it doesn't wait for input... just continues with the program.

Does anyone know what's causing this and how I can fix it?

Code:

---

#include <iostream.h>
#include <ctype.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

int main()
{
  char ans;
  do
  {
      //Declarations
        char string[21];
        char decrypt;
        int i;

      //Get string from user
        cout<<"Enter a string no longer than 20 characters long:"<<endl;
        cin.get(string,20);
        cin.ignore(80,'\n');
        cout<<endl;

      //encrypt
        for(int a = 0; a <= 20; a++)
        {
          if(isupper (string[a]))
              i = (int) 'A';
          else if(islower ((int) string[a]))
              i = (int) 'a';

          if(isalpha(string[a]))
          {
              string[a] = string[a] - i;
              string[a] = string[a] + 1;
              string[a] = string[a] % 26;
              string[a] = string[a] + i;
          }
        }

      //Print out the encrypted string
        cout<<"The encrypted string is: "<<string<<endl<<endl;

      //Ask for decrypt
        cout<<"Would you like to decrypt this string? (y,n) ";
        cin>>decrypt;
        cout<<endl;

      //Decrypt and output
        if(decrypt != 'n') //decrypt?
        {
          for(int j = 0; j <= 20; j++) //decrypt individual characters
          {
              if(isalpha(string[j]))
              {
                if(isupper (string[j]))
                    i = (int) 'A';
                else if(islower ((int) string[j]))
                    i = (int) 'a';

                string[j] = string[j] - i;
                string[j] = string[j] - 1;
                if(string[j] < 0)
                string[j] = 25;
                string[j] = string[j] + i;
              }
          }
          cout<<endl<<endl<<"The decrypted string is: "<<string<<endl<<endl;
        }

      //Run again code
        cout<< "Would you like to run this program again? (y,n) ";
        cin>>ans;
        cin.sync();

  }while(ans != 'n');
  return 0;
}

---

> cout<<"Would you like to decrypt this string? (y,n) ";
> cin>>decrypt;
> cout<<endl;

Try adding a cin.ignore() here like you did for the cin.get() above:
cout<<"Would you like to decrypt this string? (y,n) ";
cin>>decrypt;
cin.ignore(80,'\n');
cout<<endl;

another thing... @ the bottom of the program I had getch(), not cin.sync() ... I changed it when i had a friend look at the code. The program worked for him, but it's still not working on my computer. If it's working for you guys... I'm thinking it's a compiler thing... but I know so little about this that I'm not sure what to do.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by swoopy

> cout<<"Would you like to decrypt this string? (y,n) ";
> cin>>decrypt;
> cout<<endl;

Try adding a cin.ignore() here like you did for the cin.get() above:
cout<<"Would you like to decrypt this string? (y,n) ";
cin>>decrypt;
cin.ignore(80,'\n');
cout<<endl;

---

Tried that, didn't work. :(

Code:

---

cout <<"Enter a string no longer than 20 characters long:"<<endl;
cin.get(string,20);

---

The problem is at that line, right? By default, your cin.get() will stop getting input when reading a newline; therefore, try removing endl;

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by alphaoide

Code:

---

cout <<"Enter a string no longer than 20 characters long:"<<endl;
cin.get(string,20);

---

The problem is at that line, right? By default, your cin.get() will stop getting input when reading a newline; therefore, try removing endl;

---

That doesn't do it either...

How about using cin.getline() instead of cin.get()? Also, after each "cin >> (something);", try either putting an ignore or else just call getline() again to extract the '\n' at the end of the input.

The following works in VC++ .NET. I have to change the includes to standard one because my compiler couldn't find .h versions. You have to fix the loop which goes through each character. Your code always loop 21 times (0 to 20) when the string's character could be less than that. So check, the length and loop accordingly. I didn't fix anything related to the cin.get() issue because there's nothing to fix for me. So your problem could be compiler specific. Try www.bloodshed.net

Code:

---

#include <iostream>
#include <cctype>
#include <cstdlib>

using namespace std;

int main()
{
  char ans;
  do
  {
      //Declarations
        char string[21];
        char decrypt;
        int i;

      //Get string from user
        cout<<"Enter a string no longer than 20 characters long:"<<endl;
        cin.get(string,20);
        cin.ignore(80,'\n');
        cout<<endl;

      //encrypt
        for(int a = 0; a < strlen(string); a++)
        {
          if(isupper (string[a]))
              i = (int) 'A';
          else if(islower ((int) string[a]))
              i = (int) 'a';

          if(isalpha(string[a]))
          {
              string[a] = string[a] - i;
              string[a] = string[a] + 1;
              string[a] = string[a] % 26;
              string[a] = string[a] + i;
          }
        }

      //Print out the encrypted string
        cout<<"The encrypted string is: "<<string<<endl<<endl;

      //Ask for decrypt
        cout<<"Would you like to decrypt this string? (y,n) ";
        cin>>decrypt;
        cout<<endl;

      //Decrypt and output
        if(decrypt != 'n') //decrypt?
        {
          for(int j = 0; j < strlen(string); j++) //decrypt individual characters
          {
              if(isalpha(string[j]))
              {
                if(isupper (string[j]))
                    i = (int) 'A';
                else if(islower ((int) string[j]))
                    i = (int) 'a';

                string[j] = string[j] - i;
                string[j] = string[j] - 1;
                if(string[j] < 0)
                string[j] = 25;
                string[j] = string[j] + i;
              }
          }
          cout<<endl<<endl<<"The decrypted string is: "<<string<<endl<<endl;
        }

      //Run again code
        cout<< "Would you like to run this program again? (y,n) ";
        cin>>ans;
        cin.sync();

  }while(ans != 'n');
  return 0;
}

---

oh, here's the screenshot

Code:

---

Enter a string no longer than 20 characters long:
abcdefg

The encrypted string is: bcdefgh

Would you like to decrypt this string? (y,n) y



The decrypted string is: abcdefg

Would you like to run this program again? (y,n) y
Enter a string no longer than 20 characters long:
kj dpoja kj sf

The encrypted string is: lk eqpkb lk tg

Would you like to decrypt this string? (y,n) y



The decrypted string is: kj dpoja kj sf

Would you like to run this program again? (y,n) n
Press any key to continue

---

I got it working! :D

I replaced cin.sync @ the end of the program w/ cin.ignore and i put a cin.ignore after every cin and that fixed the problem.

I also used your idea, alphaoide, thanks!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by StupidIntel

I got it working! :D

I also used your idea, alphaoide, thanks!

---

Code:

---

for(int a = 0; a < strlen(string); a++)

---

change that into

Code:

---

length = strlen(string);
for (int a = 0; a < length; a++)

---

that way function strlen needs not to be called repeatedly

>>I put a cin.ignore after every cin and that fixed the problem.
Yes, that's because cin.get() leaves the '\n' in the input stream; so the next time cin.get() gets run, it finds the '\n' and returns an empty string - again without extracting the '\n'. getline() acts the same as get(), except it removes the '\n' so you don't have to do the ignore. Of course, I believe you still would need the ignore()'s after each cin >> (although I could be mistaken about that).

:D Thanks for the info!