CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c++arraysparallel-arrays
Connor Lance
Connor Lance

Reputation: 77

How to retrieve an element from an array based on an input?

I am currently working on a program and I was wondering if there was anyway to input an element FROM an array and find an element in the same location of a parallel array.

string names[3]={"Jim", "John", "Jeff"};
int num[3]={1,2,3};
cout<<"Enter either Jim, John, or Jeff"<<endl;
cin<<name;

If I were to input the name 'John' how would I get the output to print out something along the lines of: 'John has the number 2'

Upvotes: 0

Views: 102

Answers (3)

Jerry Coffin
Jerry Coffin

Reputation: 490178

Unless you're truly required to use parallel arrays, you might want to consider an std::map or std::unordered_map, which are designed for precisely this sort of problem:

std::map<std::string, int> people{
    { "Jim", 1 },
    { "John", 2 },
    { "Jeff", 3 }
};

std::cout << "Please enter a name: ";
std::string name;
std::cin >> name;

auto pos = people.find(name);
if (pos != people.end())
    std::cout << name << " has the number: " << pos->second;

Upvotes: 2

6502
6502

Reputation: 114539

C++ doesn't provide that for arrays, but you can use std::find from the <algorithm> library that can work using two iterators.

Iterators are generalizations of pointers and you can use that algorithm also using pointers; an example of the this method is:

string *s = std::find(names, names+3, name);
int index = s - names; // 0, 1 or 2; if not present it will be 3

Upvotes: 0

john
john

Reputation: 87957

Write a loop

for (int i = 0 i < 3; ++i)
{
    if (name == names[i])
    {
      cout << name " has the number " << num[i] << "\n";
      break;
    }
}

Upvotes: 2

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