Need info

[socondc22]

I'm trying to write a program with the function of find_a()... i haven't learned this yet so i was wondering if anyone knew anything about it or could point me in the right direction to find out something about it...

[RRick]

Never heard of it. Its not part of the STL.

What package/lib does it apply to?

[socondc22]

Never heard of it. Its not part of the STL.

What package/lib does it apply to?

My professor called it a hypothetical function. And also said This function will take a arbitrary input stream reference as a parameter, then read characters in from the stream until it finds an 'a'. The function should then return the number of characters read.

I'm pretty sure i know how to have it count the number of characters. Its more or less trying to figure out how to use find_a().

[sicarie]

My professor called it a hypothetical function.

Ah! This means the function does not actually exist in any real library. You are to imagine this "function" being part of some class "out there".

And also said This function will take a arbitrary input stream reference as a parameter, then read characters in from the stream until it finds an 'a'. The function should then return the number of characters read.

I'm pretty sure i know how to have it count the number of characters. Its more or less trying to figure out how to use find_a().

So to use it, you will need to know 1) what you pass to it, 2)what it does to what you pass to it, and 3) what it returns. Then you can figure out how to use it.

[socondc22]

Ah! This means the function does not actually exist in any real library. You are to imagine this "function" being part of some class "out there".



So to use it, you will need to know 1) what you pass to it, 2)what it does to what you pass to it, and 3) what it returns. Then you can figure out how to use it.

ok he said our main function only needs these two lines of code:

cout find_a(cin);
return 0;

[sicarie]

Right. So your find_a() function is going to read chars from that stream until it comes across a specific character.

What is your question about this? Are you trying to implement one?

[socondc22]

Right. So your find_a() function is going to read chars from that stream until it comes across a specific character.

What is your question about this? Are you trying to implement one?

like i know id start off with

int main()
cout find_a(cin)
return 0;
 

and then there should be more

im thinking i should use int istream and then a do while loop to count.... does that sound right?

[socondc22]

but other than that I'm kind of lost on what to do...

[sicarie]

What is your question about this? Are you trying to implement one?

. . .

[oler1s]

im thinking i should use int istream and then a do while loop to count.... does that sound right?

An int istream. Now what would that be? And a do while loop to count. Count what?

No offense, but it sounds like you have no idea what is going on. Making guesses is a bit pointless in programming.

When I’m stuck, I imagine a big square in my mind. There’s lines that are protruding from the left and right. This represents a black box, and is a way of forcing myself to look at something as such. On the left are the inputs, and on the right are the outputs. Start with this model. Find_a is now a black box. It can be used in the form cout << find_a(cin); Clearly there is a single input (cin), and some form of output, which goes to cout. If my last sentence was not dead obvious, let us know.

So the question is, what is the datatype of the input, and what is the datatype of the output. This is what you need to answer first. If you cannot even answer this, then you might as well give up. Look at the description of what your professor gave you:

This function will take a arbitrary input stream reference as a parameter, then read characters in from the stream until it finds an 'a'. The function should then return the number of characters read.

. So, what is the datatype of the input and output? Do not give us a vague response. Until you can tell us an answer that a compiler would accept, we will not proceed.

[socondc22]

the datatype of my input is char... and the datatype of my output is an int because i want to count the amount of letters until i reach a letter a...

[socondc22]

am i not right with what i just said??

[Studlyami]

your input is going to be coming from a stream you won't be receiving a single char. take a look at the return type of cin. Although i don't know how to handle Function(cin); I don't see where you allow the using to input in the stream.

[oler1s]

You are right about the output. It is an integral value. So an int. But you are most certainly wrong about the input. You're telling me the input is a char. Well, it's not even close.

Here's an example of a char: 'a'. or 'b'. or 'c'. One character. Remember, I said precise. If you tell the compiler, char, it will expect a char. Not two. Not five. Not many of them. Just one. But it's not even characters. As was said, cin is an object of istream. I'm pretty sure your professor covered streams, if he's giving you this assignment. So read up on istreams.

So we have an istream as input. And an int as an output. Write the function declaration. I don't want a definition (the body of the function). Just the function declaration. This needs to be compilable. You can make a mistake here, in just one line of code, so that's why I'm asking you to do this.