infinate loop error with char input

[Poly]

Here is a block of code that I am having trouble with. I rewrote it as a main function, so I could isolate the problem to fix it, but still haven't been able to figure out the problem. I am pretty new to C++ still.

As I understood it, when cin is used to get text, it would cut off the text at the first space. That's what I was expecting, but in this code, if you enter two words at once - like "red hat" for example - it will go through the loop cycle and never end, ignoring the cin commands inside the loop. Why are those cin commands ignored when extra text is entered? How can I avoid this?

Thank you all for your help.

 
#include <iostream>
#include <iomanip>
using namespace std;
 
/**********************************************************************
* This Function lets you choose one or multiple words.
***********************************************************************/
int main()//inf. loop error if 2 words entered at once
{
    char word[256];
 
    int choice = 3;// I kept getting 2359208 as my variable.
    //I initialized choice to 3 in an attempt to bump it out of the 
    //loop at the switch and force to choose a new word.
 
    //select word
    cout << "Please type a word.\n";
    cin  >> word;
 
    //modify or finish
    do{
       cout << "Is " << word << " correct?\n"
            << "1 - yes\n"
            << "2 - add more\n"
            << "3 - start over\n";
       cin  >> choice;
 
       //only added for debugging.
       cout << "Your choice is " << choice << endl;
 
       switch (choice)
       {
          case 1://word ok, continue. Needed to add case to avoid default case.
             break;
          case 2://add a space and an additional word
          {
             char wordTemp[256];
             cout << "Enter the additional word that you would like to add.\n";
             cin  >> wordTemp;
 
             if ((strlen(word) + strlen(wordTemp)) < 254)
             {
                strcat (word, " ");
                strcat (word, wordTemp);
             }
 
             else//word combo too large. Do not combine
                cout << "Sorry, those words are too long.\n";
 
             break;
          }
          case 3://choose a new word
          {
             cout << "Please re-enter your word.\n";
             cin  >> word;
             break;
          }
          default://invalid input
          {
             cout << "Incorect response. Please select again.\n";
             cin >> choice;
             break;
          }   
       }
    }while (choice != 1);
 
    cout << "You have selected:\n\"" << word << "\"\n";
 
    cout << "press any key and select enter to finish.\n";
    cin >> choice;
 
return 0;
}
 
 

[gpraghuram]

Hi,
The problem is the standard input is having unwanted characters which ur second cin>> is reading due to which you get infinite loop.
So you want to clear the standard input buffer before reading again.
You can use this code to clear the unwanted characters

do{
    char junk[100]; 
    cin.getline(junk,100); //this will remove unwanted characters
 
       cout << "Is " << word << " correct?\n"
            << "1 - yes\n"
            << "2 - add more\n"
            << "3 - start over\n";
       cin  >> choice;
 
 

Thanks
Raghuram

[Poly]

Thank you so much for the help!

[weaknessforcats]

do{
char junk[100];
cin.getline(jun k,100); //this will remove unwanted characters

cout << "Is " << word << " correct?\n"
<< "1 - yes\n"
<< "2 - add more\n"
<< "3 - start over\n";
cin >> choice;

This removes only 100 characters. Why 100? Why not 50 or 10000??

To flush the input buffer, write function that will get characters individually until EOF is endountered.

[gpraghuram]

This removes only 100 characters. Why 100? Why not 50 or 10000??

To flush the input buffer, write function that will get characters individually until EOF is endountered.

Whatever i have suggested is only an idea and can be changed by the person who has asked it.
But yours is a good idea to read till EOF


Raghuram

[Ganon11]

Rather than creating an extra variable to read into, you can just use cin.ignore(100, '\n'); which will discard either 100 characters or all characters until the newline character '\n' is encountered, whichever comes first. This runs into the same problem that weaknessforcats described, however.