the bits being read from the input stream are interpreted in terms of the type of the variable on the right hand side. In all cases, the default behavior is to ignore leading blanks (ASCII character code 32) and then, when the first non-blank character appears on the stream, read data into the variable until the next blank is found. For example, if the variable is of type 'int' the system will skip all blanks and attempt to translate the codes that follow - up to the next blank - as digits in the range 0 - 9 (with the first character being an optional '+' or '-'). If a non-digit character appears - a letter or, for example, a comma, the input fails because it cannot translate this code into an integer value. When this happens, the cin stream has a status of 'fail'. (We will see the implications of this in a bit.)

Similar rules apply for doubles. However, with variables of type char, only one character is read, and it is much harder to have an input failure. Note that in both cases all leading white space (blanks) is again skipped. The same process occurs with strings, but here one has to be more careful. Since the system only stops removing characters from the stream when it encounters a blank, it is possible to overflow the memory set aside for the string. If this happens, the system will blithely continue reading characters into memory meant for other purposes until a blank is encountered. The consequences of this could be disastrous. One nice feature: when a trailing blank is encountered, a NULL character is automatically inserted into the string so the string manipulation operations will work as long as too many characters are not entered.

B. The 'get' Member Function
Since there is this danger of overflow and because it is not possible using the ">>" operator to read in a string with embedded blanks (the input stops at the first blank after the first non-blank character), it is often better to use the member functions 'get' or 'getline' when reading strings. The function 'get' actually has a number of different forms. The simplest form:

can be used to read in one character at a time. Since this function does not skip leading white space, it can be used to read in a blank. (One cannot do this with 'cin' because it always skips leading blank.) If blanks have significance as input, this could be very useful.

Earlier, we saw how functions can be overloaded - to take on more than one purpose - by using different types and/or number of parameters. The 'get' function has been overloaded a number of times. When called with, first, a string parameter and, second, an integer parameter, it can be used to read characters until it encounters a newline character ('\n') or until it has read "integer -1 characters. Thus, if we write:

the system will read in up to four characters (stopping sooner if it encounters a newline character) AND add a NULL character. The programmer must make sure that 'string' is large enough to hold four characters and a NULL character but this is much safer than assuming that the user will not enter too many characters.

This form of 'get' actually has a third parameter. We don't need to use it because it has a default value of '\n'. Thus, when a call to 'get' does not provide a third parameter, the function performs as described - using the default value to indicate the character to look for to stop reading in input. However, if, for example, one wishes a program to read in possibly multiple lines of characters until 80 characters or a period (.) is entered, one could write:

In this case if one entered the following (on three separate lines):

Hello
There
Curtis.

the output would be on three lines - because of the newline characters stored in the string!

Having learned about function overloading and parameter default values, we can imagine how the function 'get' is declared in the file "iostream.h". There are some obscure points about what are called 'far' pointers and 'unsigned characters' in the actual declarations that we will skip, but if you examine this file you will see three function declarations for 'get' that are relevant to us:

int get();
istream& get( char& );
istream& get( char*, int, char = '\n');

If called as :

this function will read in up to 80 characters or until the newline character is encountered. There is no version of this function declared with simply a 'char' as the first parameter. Therefore, you cannot read data into a character type variable using 'getline' – as you can with the first two versions of 'get'. This makes sense because, as its name implies, 'getline' is meant to read in a line at a time. You can, however, define what a 'line' means to you by choosing to call this function with a third parameter, thus overriding the value of '\n' as the delimiter.

The main difference between 'getline' and 'get' is that 'getline' does remove the delimiter from the stream. As we saw in chapter 10, Section 8, when using the 'get' function, it is often necessary to also use the 'ignore' member function to remove the newline character before proceeding with the next 'get'. If this is not done, the next 'get' will also encounter the newline and will stop immediately. The 'getline' function does all this for us. With keyboard input, where typing the 'Enter' key is crucial to getting information processed, the difference between 'get' and 'getline' is not too important. One can either use 'get' and 'ignore' together or use 'getline' by itself. However, in processing files, the difference can be more significant.

D. The Use of the setw Manipulator
There are a number of function-like operators,called manipulators, that can be used to change the way the input and output operators ('>>' and '<<') work. We have already seen one of these - 'endl'. There is a second one we will explore briefly here in conjunction with input.

The manipulator 'setw' (short for set width) can be used to indicate the maximum number of characters to be read in with the '>>' operator. In other words, it is a way to use '>>' to read in strings and guarantee that the string array does not overflow. It does not, however, change the fact that '>>' stops when it encounters a blank. Thus you cannot use it to read strings that contain blanks.

Consider the following code:

char string[5];
cout << "Please enter a string\n";
cin >> setw(5) >> string;
cout << string << endl;

Note that 'setw' only affects the very next '>>' operation. Thus, it needs to be repeated each time you want to restrict the number of characters read. Also, to use it in a program, one must include the header file 'iomanip.h'.

E. Handling Invalid Input
By now it is likely that you have managed more than once to get yourself into an infinite loop by entering some invalid data. For example, if you have a loop that expects the user to continuously enter integers until some sentinel value is entered, but the user types a non-numeric character, the program will go into an infinite loop. Consider the following very simplistic code:

 
	int x;
	cout << "Enter a number\n";
	cin >> x;
	while (x != 0)
	{	cout << " A number was read\n";
		cout << "Enter a number\n";
		cin >> x;
	}

However, the instruction is ignored because the status flag has been set to 'fail'. This means that the value of 'x' has not changed and the loop repeats again. In fact, 'x' will never change because the status flag will always be 'fail' and the system will ignore the read instruction. We have an infinite loop!

To fix this we need to check for the 'fail' error status, clear the status flag if necessary, get rid of the illegal character and then continue. Below is a code fragment that demonstrates. It uses a 'while' loop that simply keeps asking for numbers until the user enters a 0. Note that the 'while' instruction itself is not part of the error handling. It is include because such error handling is needed when an input fails inside a loop.

int x;
char ch1;
cout << "Enter a number\n";
cin >> x;
while (x != 0)
{ 	if (cin.fail())
	{	cin.clear();
		cin >> ch1;
		cout << "Invalid value entered\n";

	}
	else
	{	cout << " A number was read\n";
	}
	cout << "Enter a number\n";
	cin >> x;
	}
}

checks the error status of 'cin'. If an error has occurred, the code:

• goes inside the if statement;
• uses the function call "cin.clear();" to clear the error status, that is, the error status is reset to 'good';
• reads the invalid data into a variable of type char - to get rid of the non-numeric data;
• tells the user what happened

would be replaced by whatever was to be done with valid input. In both cases (valid or invalid data), another character is read and the system starts again. Here you see another pattern (Pattern G1, "Clean Handling of Invalid Data") that you might want to consider adding to your code, whenever you are working with input that could be invalid.

By the way, you may have noticed that one of the so-called error states was 'EOF' or "end of file". Of, course, this is not really an error state. It represents the state of a stream when it has encountered the end of file character code. This code is the equivalent to striking "Ctrl-D" on your keyboard (hitting the CTRL key and the 'D' key simultaneously). Therefore, although it may seen strange, the 'cin' stream could be in the 'eof' state, if the user typed Ctrl-D and all input prior to this had been processed.

Top of Section

Main Menu

Next Section