getting console input for Cstrings

Question

note: this is in C++ but using C-style strings

hello SO,

I'm working on an assignment and I need to get input from the console and save it to a cstring. Everything compiles fine, but when the program runs, it just skips over getting input from the user. So it will output: "Enter string to be inserted: " then skip the cin.getline function, then execute the next command.

Here's my header files, the declaration of the cstring, and the line of code I'm having trouble with.

#include "stdafx.h"
#include <iostream>
#include <cstring>

using namespace std;

int main()
{
  char tempCString[500] = {};

//...code snipit...

  cout << "Enter string to be inserted: " << endl;
  cin.getline(tempCString, 500, '\n'); //I've also tried cin.getline(tempCString, 500);

//...end code snipit...

  return 0;
}

note: I can't use "cin >> tempCString" becaues it will only get the input up to the first space, I need to get input from the console of everything up to the newline.

Thank you

If it's getting skipped, chances are that you have a new-line left in the input buffer from some previous reading. — Jerry Coffin, Mar 18 '12 at 00:53

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:50

2

Try clearing cin's buffer before getting new input:

#include <limits>

cin.clear();
cin.ignore(std::numeric_limits<std::streamsize>::max());
cout << "Enter string to be inserted: " << endl;
cin.getline(tempCString, sizeof(tempCString), '\n');

See How do I flush the cin buffer?

edited May 23 '17 at 11:50

Community

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answered Mar 18 '12 at 00:58

Emile Cormier

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thank you for reminding me of this, I had forgotten about it. – Logan Besecker Mar 18 '12 at 01:07
I had heard that cin and cin.getline() didn't play well together. Now I know why they say that haha. just needed to put cin.ignore(1000, 10) after each cin >> – Logan Besecker Mar 18 '12 at 01:13

getting console input for Cstrings

note: this is in C++ but using C-style strings

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