Starting a class and may need help

[Blueteeth]

you must define the variable Name as "string" not "char" and add
#include <string>.

[Tronn]

Shouldn't that be <cstring> ?

[icujc]

Shouldn't that be <cstring> ?

Nope he had it right. You could also just make this a char array like this:

char Name[15];

[omnius]

C++ supports two different types of strings. It inherited C-style strings from C, represented by null-terminated character arrays, and also supports a string type as part of the C++ standard library.

C-style strings are declared as an array of characters, thus:

char myString[size];

where size if the number of elements (characters) in the string. This is usually the maximum number of characters your string is expected to hold, plus an extra element for a null-terminator. This is required for the string functions that are in header <string.h>, or the C++ equivalent <cstring>.

C++ style strings using std::string are declared this:

string myString;

The std::string class includes many useful functions for manipulating your strings. To use it you include the header <string>.

Learning how to use strings in C++ is pretty fundamental. Your C++ reference book should provide details of both types above, and typically they start with the inherited C-style although for many purposes the std::string class should be preferred as a general case.

[Tronn]

Shouldn't that be <cstring> ?

Nope he had it right. You could also just make this a char array like this:

char Name[15];

I don't think it's a case of "Nope he had it right" because you can use <cstring> as well.

Code: Select all

#include <iostream>
#include <cstring>

using namespace std;

int main()
{
    string name;
   
    cout << "Please enter your name: ";
    cin >> name;
    cout << "\nHello " << name;
   
    return 0;
}


So we were both right.

[icujc]

Code:

#include <iostream>
#include <cstring>

using namespace std;

int main()
{
string name;

cout << "Please enter your name: ";
cin >> name;
cout << "\nHello " << name;

return 0;
}

That didn't work for me

This works:

Code: Select all

#include <iostream>
#include <string>

using namespace std;

int main()
{
    string name;
   
    cout << "Please enter your name: ";
    cin >> name;
    cout << "\nHello " << name;
   
    return 0;
}


[Tronn]

So they both work then.

[icujc]

So they both work then.

The <cstring> didn't work for me. As far as I can remember <string> is used for Null-terminated character arrays often referred to as C strings and <cstring> is a wrapper that defines the macros traditionally defined in the Standard C library header <string.h>.

[Tronn]

Hmmm. Strange. cstring worked fine for me.

I'm using Borland 5.5.1 compiler.

[omnius]

Hmmm. Strange. cstring worked fine for me.

I'm using Borland 5.5.1 compiler.

The std::string requires the header <string>. The C-style strings require either <string.h> or the equivalent <cstring>. Any other behaviour is down to your particular compiler, and is quite likely to fail if you write code on (or port your code to) another compiler.

[omnius]

As far as I can remember <string> is used for Null-terminated character arrays often referred to as C strings

No, definitely not. <string> is for std::string, not C-strings. Any reasonably modern beginner's book should cover this.

[Tronn]

So the following code shouldn't work then?

Code: Select all

#include <iostream>
#include <cstring>

using namespace std;

int main()
{
    string name;
   
    cout << "Please enter your name: ";
    cin >> name;
    cout << "\nHello " << name;
   
    return 0;
}


[omnius]

I would expect it to fail to compile on most compilers.

[raimo]

Indeed, <cstring> should contain the basic functions to manipulate null-terminated character arrays, like strcpy, strcat and so.