CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c++stringconsole
Pincopallino
Pincopallino

Reputation: 651

C++ console free text input (with max character size)

I have an object with a std::string field notes that allows a maximum of 100 chars. I need to write a C++ console interface (using IOStream) to let the user input these notes. All characters are allowed, including of course spaces.

What's the best way of doing such thing?

Is there a way to let the user know how many characters are left?

EDIT: Also empty string should be allowed

Upvotes: 0

Views: 1480

Answers (2)

Cheers and hth. - Alf
Cheers and hth. - Alf

Reputation: 145457

Use std::string and std::getline.

You can display one hundred asterisks this way:

cout << "  " << string( 100, '*' ) << endl;
cout << "> ";  getline( cin, line );

then, with a sufficiently wide console window, the user can see how much space remains.

Upvotes: 1

Basile Starynkevitch
Basile Starynkevitch

Reputation: 1

I'm not sure that std::string can be strongly limited in its capacity (the max_size member function gives a big number). If you really want to limit to 100 characters (which is not a very good thing to do), using a char buf[100]; (or perhaps a std::array) could make more sense (but don't forget to have a terminating null character).

And to input that field, you may want to use the getline member function of your input stream.

If you are coding on Linux a console application, the ncurses library could be useful to you. Or perhaps the readline library

Upvotes: 0

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