Having char variable access parts of a string

[TamaThps]

I have an array of string values, and I need to access each character of the string individually. For instance I want my char variable to equal the first character in the string, and then compare it to character values using if statements. Later in the program I will need to not only access the first character but all of them individually in each string. How can I set that up?

Here is my code for trying to have the charcter variable equal the first character in the string.

#include <fstream>
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
 
using namespace std;
 
void CommentEvaluation(string codeArray[], int size, ofstream& dataOut);
 
int main()
{
    int size=0;
    ifstream dataIn;
    ofstream dataOut;
    string codeArray[1000];
    string temp;
 
    dataIn.open("someProgram.cpp");
    dataOut.open("someProgram.txt");
 
    while(!dataIn.eof())
    {
        while (size<1000)
        {
            getline(dataIn, temp);
 
            codeArray[size]=temp;
            size++;
        } 
    }
 
 
    CommentEvaluation(codeArray, size, dataOut);
    cout << codeArray[size];
    return 0;
}
 
void CommentEvaluation(/* in */ string codeArray[], int size, ofstream& dataOut)
//This function computes the ratio of total lines of code
//to the number of comment lines, and ratio of total number
//of non comment and non blank lines to the total
//number of code.
//Preconditions:codeArray is defined and has values
//Postconditions: output is sent to file
{
    int counter=0;
    int arrayNumber=0;
    char firstChar;
    int commentTotal=0;
    int lineTotal=0;
    int codeTotal=0;
    float commentRatio;
    float codeRatio;
    while (counter != size)
    {
        firstChar=codeArray[arrayNumber];
        if (firstChar == '/')
        {
            commentTotal++;
            lineTotal++;
        }
        else
        {
            lineTotal++;
            if (firstChar != ' ')
                codeTotal++;
        }
        counter++;
        arrayNumber++;
 
    }
    commentRatio= commentTotal/lineTotal;
    codeRatio= codeTotal/lineTotal;
 
    dataOut << "Ratio of total number of comment lines to the" << endl; 
    dataOut << "total number of source code lines: " << commentRatio << endl;;
    dataOut << "Ratio of total number of non-comment lines and" << endl; 
    dataOut << "non-blank lines to the total number of source" << endl;
    dataOut << "code lines in file: " << codeRatio << endl;
}

The part I am talking about is in the void function where firstChar=codeArray[arrayNumber] it cannot convert the string into a char. In a larger sense this program is made to get the lines of code from another .cpp file and store them into an array. For my void function it is supposed to compare comment lines and blank lines to the total number of lines.

This is the error I am getting:
c:\documents and settings\matt\my documents\visual studio 2008\projects\assign4\assign4\assign4.cpp(55) : error C2440: '=' : cannot convert from 'std::string' to 'char'
1> No user-defined-conversion operator available that can perform this conversion, or the operator cannot be called

Thanks for any help.

[vmpstr]

Because codeArray is an array of strings, codeArray[arrayNumber] is a string, not a char. You were probably thinking something along the lines of codeArray[arrayNumber][0]

That is your problem.

Also, just skimming through your code, I noticed that line 26 will probably cause a segmentation fault, because size at that point is 1000 and that's more than you have allocated.

Also, from a logic point of view

float a = 10.0, b = 20.0 c;
 
c =
a 
/
b;
 

is code with no comments, which will compile and work fine. Your code (at least from a brief look) will count at least one comment.

[TamaThps]

I know that the array has multiple strings, not character type. I need to know how to give the first character in each string to the variable firstChar so that it is a character so I can compare it to '/' and ' '. Which I don't know how to do.

From what you said above, "codeArray[arrayNumber][0]" will give me the first character?

Thanks for replying

EDIT: ok cool, that is working it counted 48 comments in the program. Now I've run into another problem though (they never end! lol)

In the main function I have it set up so it takes in the lines of code into the array until it reaches the end of the .cpp file (this is what I want it to do). Instead it counts all the way to 1000 which is the size variable. Size is supposed to stop incrementing once it reaches the end of file which is around 290 lines. I'm thinking my error is in the while statement

while(!dataIn.eof())
    {
        while (size<1000)
        {
            getline(dataIn, temp);
 
            codeArray[size]=temp;
            size++;
        } 
    }

where the !dataIn.eof() isn't doing anything? I want it to stop after it recieves the last line of code from the .cpp.
Thanks again for the help before

[boxfish]

I don't think you want a nested loop here. You want it to stop when size gets too big or when you reach the end of the file; whichever happens first, right? So you can use

while(size<1000 && !dataIn.eof())

I hope this works.