for/if/else dilemma

Code:

---

for(i=0; i<n; i++)
        if ( strcmp ( a[i].word, search_word ) == 0 ) {  // (1)

            cout << "- - - - - - - - - -" << endl;
            cout << a[i].word << ", " << a[i].word_pl << "(pl)" << " - " << a[i].word2 << endl;

        }


        else if ( strcmp (a[i].word1_pl, search_word ) == 0 ){  // (2)

            cout << "- - - - - - - - - -" << endl;
            cout << a[i].word_pl << ", " << a[i].word<< "(sg)" << " - " << a[i].word2 << endl;

            }




        // " did you mean ?" search

        else if ( strncmp ( a[i].word1, search_word, 2) == 0){  // (3)
                cout << a[i].word1 << endl;


        }

---

it's part of a function that's supposed to do a word search in a binary file.
the first if searches for the singular form of the word. if it doesn't find it goes to second if searches for plural form. again, if it doesn't find it goes to the third if the didyoumean search type. all good.

the problem is that if the first if works it still does the third if . same goes for the second if.

for the first and second if the output should only be the word's translation but i also get the some other words coresponding to the third if.

any ideas?

thanks :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by darkseid

the first if searches for the singular form of the word. if it doesn't find it goes to second if searches for plural form. again, if it doesn't find it goes to the third if the didyoumean search type. all good.

the problem is that if the first if works it still does the third if . same goes for the second if.

for the first and second if the output should only be the word's translation but i also get the some other words coresponding to the third if.

any ideas?

thanks :)

---

Reformat your code, and you will see what you're saying cannot possibly happen:

Code:

---

for(i=0; i<n; i++)
        if ( strcmp ( a[i].word, search_word ) == 0 )
        {
            cout << "- - - - - - - - - -" << endl;
            cout << a[i].word << ", " << a[i].word_pl << "(pl)" << " - " << a[i].word2 << endl;
        }

        else
        if ( strcmp (a[i].word1_pl, search_word ) == 0 )
        {
            cout << "- - - - - - - - - -" << endl;
            cout << a[i].word_pl << ", " << a[i].word<< "(sg)" << " - " << a[i].word2 << endl;
        }

        else
        if ( strncmp ( a[i].word1, search_word, 2) == 0)
        {
                cout << a[i].word1 << endl;
        }

---

I see no way what you're saying could happen. Once the first if() condition is met, the else-if's cannot occur, unless your compiler is broken.

Also, I recommend bracketing the for() statement itself.

Code:

---

for ( whatever )
{
//...
}

---

Regards,

Paul McKenzie

thanks for the advice. but still doesn't work properly.

here's the output for first if working :

http://img63.imageshack.us/i/firstif.jpg/

and second if working

http://img7.imageshack.us/i/secondif.jpg/

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by darkseid

thanks for the advice. but still doesn't work properly.

---

What doesn't work? The if() statements do "work", in the sense that if the first if() is processed, none of the other conditions are processed.

Whether the processing is correct, that is a different story altogether.

Regards,

Paul McKenzie

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Paul McKenzie

What doesn't work? The if() statements do "work", in the sense that if the first if() is processed, none of the other conditions are processed.

---

theoretically it should work .. but it still doesn't .. it has something to do with the strncmp line. i've changed it with something else and it works how it should. how should i write the strncmp line so i don't get this "bug" ?

thanks :)

OP, I hope you can understand how frustrating of a thread this is. Please post a complete example that demonstrates the problem. For all we know the code that you pasted isn't the same as what you are executing. Your description of the original problem makes no sense at all. Paul already pointed that out yet you have not really answered his question. By the way I cannot open the URLs as they are blocked by my company firewall. It is best if you post a program that others can compile and execute on their own in order to duplicate the problem.

In addition to what the other posters have asked for or said, put a couple of break points in each of the if, ifelse, else clauses and step through the code in a debugger.

If you are relying on the console output, then are you sure you aren't confusing the output?

This output

Code:

---

cout << a[i].word << ", " << a[i].word_pl << "(pl)" << " - " << a[i].word2 << endl;

---

is very similar to

Code:

---


cout << a[i].word_pl << ", " << a[i].word<< "(sg)" << " - " << a[i].word2 << endl;

---

if you can't step through the code in a debugger, help yourself out by changing the output to:

Code:

---

cout << a[i].word << ", " << a[i].word_pl << "(pl)" << " - " << a[i].word2 << endl;
cout << "Condition 1" << endl;


---

and

Code:

---


cout << a[i].word_pl << ", " << a[i].word<< "(sg)" << " - " << a[i].word2 << endl;
cout << "Condition 2" << endl;


---

sorry for the confusion. here is the full code

main.cpp

Code:

---

#include <iostream>
#include "class.h"
using namespace std;
int main()
{

            translator T;

            T.add();

            T.search();

}

---

class.cpp

Code:

---

#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include "class.h"
#include <string.h>

using namespace std;
translator a[100];
int n;
int m;
int x;


void translator::add()
{
        ofstream iFile("singular.bin", ios::binary | ios::app);
        ofstream dFile("definition.bin", ios::binary | ios::app);
        ofstream pFile("plural.bin", ios::binary | ios::app);
        ifstream gFile("nr.bin", ios::binary);
        gFile >> n;
        cout << endl;
        cout << "singular : ";
        cin.getline (word,100);
        cout << "plural : ";
        cin.getline (word_pl,100);
        cout << "definition: " ;
        cin.getline (word2,100);
        cout << word << "," << word_pl << "(pl)" <<" - " << word2 << endl;
        iFile << word << endl;
        pFile << word_pl << endl;
        dFile << word2 << endl;
        ofstream jFile("nr.bin",ios::binary);
        n++;
        jFile << n;
        iFile.close();
        pFile.close();
        dFile.close();
        jFile.close();
        gFile.close();
        }

void translator::search()
{
  int i=0;
  char *search_word;
  search_word = new char[30];

  cout << "Search : ";
  cin >> search_word;

  ifstream iFile("singular.bin", ios::binary);
  ifstream pFile("plural.bin", ios::binary);
  ifstream dFile("definition.bin", ios::binary);
  ifstream jFile("nr.bin", ios::binary);
    jFile >> n;

  if (iFile.fail() )
  {
      cout << endl << "Error" << iFile << endl;
  }
  else {
        for(i=0;i<n;i++)
      iFile.getline (a[i].word, 100);
  }

  if (dFile.fail() )
  {
      cout << endl << "Error" << dFile << endl;
  }
      else {
          for (i=0;i<n;i++)
            dFile.getline (a[i].word2,100);
      }


    if (pFile.fail() )
    {
        cout << endl << "Error" << pFile << endl;
    }
        else {
            for (i=0;i<m;i++)
            pFile.getline(a[i].word_pl,100);
        }



        for(i=0; i<n; i++) {

        if ( strcmp ( a[i].word, search_word ) == 0 ) {
            cout << "- - - - - - - - - -" << endl;
            cout << a[i].word << ", " << a[i].word_pl << "(pl)" << " - " << a[i].word2 << endl;

        }



        else
        if ( strcmp (a[i].word_pl, search_word ) == 0 ){
          cout << "- - - - - - - - - -" << endl;
            cout << a[i].word_pl << ", " << a[i].word<< "(sg)" << " - " << a[i].word2 << endl;

        }




        else
        if ( strnicmp ( a[i].word, search_word,2 ) == 0){
            cout << a[i].word << endl;

        }
        }

  delete search_word;
  iFile.close();
  pFile.close();
  dFile.close();
  jFile.close();

}

---

class.h

Code:

---

#ifndef classh
#define classh

class word {
protected:
        char word[100];
        char word_pl[100];
    char word2[100];
};


class translator : protected word {
public:
        void add();
        void search();

};


#endif

---

How about zipping up a small project and include some binary files.

I can't step through the code without the files you're are loading.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Arjay

How about zipping up a small project and include some binary files.

I can't step through the code without the files you're are loading.

---

here you go

translator.zip - 0.00MB

i hope zshare is alright.

tnx for the interest

Instead of zshare, how about just attaching the zip file directly here? [click on the manage attachments button]

i guess it's better that way :P

My curiousity got the best of me so here is the output from my execution of the program.

Code:

---

singular : light
plural : lights
definition: provides the ability to see
light,lights(pl) - provides the ability to see
Search : light
- - - - - - - - - -
light, (pl) - provides the ability to see
- - - - - - - - - -
light, (pl) - provides the ability to see
- - - - - - - - - -
light, (pl) - provides the ability to see

---

EDITED to clarify the output.
The first output was echoed during the add function. The next three were due to the word light being found multiple times within the array. Somehow entries 7,8,9, and 10 all contain the user input. The problem is not the if..elseif..else statements at all. The problem seems to be duplicate entries in the searchable array.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by kempofighter

My curiousity got the best of me so here is the output from my execution of the program.

Code:

---

singular : light
plural : lights
definition: provides the ability to see
light,lights(pl) - provides the ability to see
Search : light
- - - - - - - - - -
light, (pl) - provides the ability to see
- - - - - - - - - -
light, (pl) - provides the ability to see

---

The first output was echoed during the add function. The last was output during the search function. The program seems to have worked as advertised for me. I didn't see any issues with the strncmp call not working or the code executing within multiple if..elseif blocks. I'm only looking for the problem originally described by the OP and am not going to critique the code in any way. So for what it's worth....

---

ok. then i must have asked the wrong question. i'm going to reformulate.

why, when i use "Search: " i get answers from other ifs instead of getting only from one if.

and please, do critique the code.

sry if i'm confusing .. i'm sort of a begginer

tnx :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by darkseid

ok. then i must have asked the wrong question. i'm going to reformulate.

why, when i use "Search: " i get answers from other ifs instead of getting only from one if.

and please, do critique the code.

sry if i'm confusing .. i'm sort of a begginer

tnx :)

---

There are only two possibilities:
1) Your if statements end up comparing the same thing.
2) You have redundant entries in the data files.

Given the data, are you sure that these statements evaluate uniquely?

Code:

---


if ( strcmp  ( a[i].word, search_word )    == 0 )
if ( strcmp  (a[i].word_pl, search_word ) == 0 )
if ( strnicmp ( a[i].word, search_word,2 ) == 0 )

---

If you see duplicate entries, why don't you print out the file and line number, so when you see a duplicate, you can see the data that caused it to happen?

See my earlier post. I took another look and I understand the problem better. I haven't troubleshot that but I will leave that up to you to determine how the user input ends up in the array 4 times. There is nothing wrong with the contents of the for loop.

I'd suggest that if you really want to improve things, use std::string with getline. The user input could easily overrun the destination arrays causing undefined behavior.

Oh I get it. You are appending to the files. Therefore if you run the program multiple times the data keeps being added to the file. So if you are running the program over and over you could end up seeing duplicate output due to the same information being added over and over. Again it has nothing to do with the if..else..if statements in the search function.

so.. i found out what the real problem is. i thought that after doing first or second if the search jumps to the third if but actualy after doing first or second if it runs the for again, thus doing the third if and i get both solutions. if i added 2-3 more ifs that matched the search_word it would, after every if matb]ched, jump again to the for until there aren't any other ifs matching the search_word.

any ideea why it's doing this?

thanks for your solutions so far

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by darkseid

any ideea why it's doing this?

---

That's how for() loops work.

Code:

---

for(i=0; i<n; i++)

---

This will loop n times, unless a break statement stops the loop.

Regards,

Paul McKenzie