Help please !!! No if...else statements.

[farah727rash]

Hey All,
This is a program to extract the middle name from a person's full name, but it only works for a person who has a first, middle and a last name. What do I do so that it works for a person who has just a first and last name? For example: Fabio or Santa Claus. I am not supposed to use conditional statements, other wise using if...else it would have been so easy. I can't think of a way to do it without if...else. Any ideas/suggestions would be great. Thanks a lot, Farah.

Here's my program:
/* ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Program: Program 6.cpp
Purpose: This program extracts the middle name from a person's full name
Written: Farah Rasheed
Date : 10/12/06
Version: .NET
------------------------------------------------------------------------*/

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <cmath>

using namespace std;

int main(void)
{
// Purpose of the program
cout << "The program reads your full name extracts the middle name." << endl << endl;

// Read in the full name
cout << "Enter your full name: ";
cin.ignore();
string name;
getline(cin, name, '\n');

int lastBlankPos = name.rfind(" ");
int nextToLastBlankPos = name.find(" ", 0);
int length_of_middle_name = lastBlankPos-nextToLastBlankPos;
//cout << lastBlankPos << "\t" << nextToLastBlankPos << "\t" << length_of_middle_name<<"\n";

string middle_name = name.substr(nextToLastBlankPos, length_of_middle_name);

cout << middle_name << endl << endl;

// End of the program
return 0;
}

[farah727rash]

Any ideas, anyone? Please, some help will be great.

[Banfa]

The statement of what the program does and what it needs to be modified to do are not logically consistent

"This is a program to extract the middle name from a person's full name, but it only works for a person who has a first, middle and a last name. What do I do so that it works for a person who has just a first and last name?"

It is a program to extract the middle name for a string containing a first middle and last name. It is not possible to alter it to extract the middle name for a string containing only a first and last name.

So either the problem is unsolveable or you have not correctly stated it. What action should be taken if there is only a first and last name?