String Input
So far we have used cin
to take inputs in C++ but can we take a string input in the same way?
Let's see!
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main() {
string name;
cout << "Enter your name: ";
cin >> name;
cout << "Your name is " << name;
return 0;
}
Input 1
William
Output
William
Seems ok right? Let's see another input example
Input 2
William Shakespeare
Output
William
William Shakespeare is a valid string but why isn't it printed correctly? It's because cin
object reads string only till a space is encountered. Hence, it gave the desired output in the first case but failed in the second case.
Let's see how can we overcome this problem and take the entire string as an input.
'getline()' function
Instead of using cin, we have another function known as getline()
function to take string inputs especially for full lines.
Syntax
getline(cin, string_variable);
Let's rewrite the same program but using the getline() function this time.
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main() {
string name;
cout << "Enter your name: ";
getline(cin, name);
cout << "Your name is " << name;
return 0;
}
Input
William Shakespeare
Output
William Shakespeare
Hence, getline() function enables us to take an entire line as an input for a string.
Quiz
What will be the values of the standard
and subject
variables if the inputs are 12 Science
and Physics Chemistry Maths
respectively.
string standard;
string subjects;
getline(cin, standard);
cin >> subjects;