Cleaner if statement

[zachb]

Alright here's the deal. I am using a if/else statement to determine whether the letter of the first character in the array is a consonant or a vowel, also if it is the consonant q followed by u, then this must also be known.

(START = 0)

  int i =3;
if (word[START] == 'a' && word[START] == 'e' && word[START] == 'i' 
&& word[START] == 'o' && word[START] == 'u')
  int i = 1; 
else if(word [START] =='q' && word[START + 1] == 'u')
  int i = 2;

It defaults to 3 as everything else will start with just a consonant. Is there some way to write this neater, using simple C++.

[Mybowlcut]

Alright here's the deal. I am using a if/else statement to determine whether the letter of the first character in the array is a consonant or a vowel, also if it is the consonant q followed by u, then this must also be known.

(START = 0)

  int i =3;
if (word[START] == 'a' && word[START] == 'e' && word[START] == 'i' 
&& word[START] == 'o' && word[START] == 'u')
  int i = 1; 
else if(word [START] =='q' && word[START + 1] == 'u')
  int i = 2;

It defaults to 3 as everything else will start with just a consonant. Is there some way to write this neater, using simple C++.

Hehe.. It actually defaults to 3 because of scope. Take a look at how many times you declare the variable i.

[Speedo]

Is there some way to write this neater, using simple C++.

A small inline function is about the best you're going to get

inline bool IsVowel(char c)
{
  return (c == 'a') || (c == 'e') || (c == 'i') ||
    (c == 'o') || (c == 'u');
}

if (IsVowel(word[START]))
  ...
else if (...)
  ...

But it's probably not even worth doing that unless you are checking if a char is a vowel in multiple places.

[AmadeusAD]

int i =3;
if (word[START] == 'a' && word[START] == 'e' && word[START] == 'i' 
&& word[START] == 'o' && word[START] == 'u')
  int i = 1; 
else if(word [START] =='q' && word[START + 1] == 'u')
  int i = 2;

Those lines are definitions of a new i variable, that overlaps your initial one (the one you are probably want to determine after the if-else checks). You need assignments instead - remove the 'int' keywords as pointed.

[treuss]

if (strchr("aeiuo", word[START])) // word starts with a lowercase vowel

[AmadeusAD]

And, by the way, your conditions will always be false due to incorrect usage of logical operation 'AND' (&&). You should use 'OR' (||) instead, since word[START] cannot be both, for instance, 'A' and 'E' contemporary.

[Peter_B]

A small inline function is about the best you're going to get

inline bool IsVowel(char c)
{
  return (c == 'a') || (c == 'e') || (c == 'i') ||
    (c == 'o') || (c == 'u');
}

if (IsVowel(word[START]))
  ...
else if (...)
  ...

But it's probably not even worth doing that unless you are checking if a char is a vowel in multiple places.

Even if it is only currently used in once place, it makes the code much more readable so is worth doing for that reason alone.

[PredicateNormative]

if (strchr("aeiuo", word[START])) // word starts with a lowercase vowel

This seems to me to be by far the best solution.

[zachb]

if (strchr("aeiuo", word[START])) // word starts with a lowercase vowel

I looked up strchr and it talks about pointers and we haven't been taught that. Could some explain how it works exactly? Could i do this for example.

int i =3;
if (strchr("aeiuo", word[START])
  i = 1;
else if (strchr("q", word[START] && strchr("u", word[START + 1])
  i = 2;

That way I get 3 for consonant unless it stats with a vowel or the first two letters are qu?

Also isnt the array supposed to come first?

char * strchr ( const char *, int )

[treuss]

I looked up strchr and it talks about pointers and we havnt been taught that.

The only part you need to understand is that strchr returns the null pointer, if word[START] is not found in "aeiuo". The null pointer "returns" false, if evaluated in an if-statement, any other pointer returns true.

[JohnW@Wessex]

Or

string word;

bool starts_with_vowel = (word.find_first_of("aeiou") == word.begin());

bool starts_with_qu = (word.find("qu") == word.begin());

See std::string

[treuss]

I looked up strchr and it talks about pointers and we haven't been taught that. Could some explain how it works exactly? Could i do this for example.

int i =3;
if (strchr("aeiuo", word[START])
  i = 1;
else if (strchr("q", word[START] && strchr("u", word[START + 1])
  i = 2;

That way I get 3 for consonant unless it stats with a vowel or the first two letters are qu?

Also isnt the array supposed to come first?

Using strchr for the second check does not make sense. Just use == here (as in your original code) or alternatively look up strncmp.

"aeiou" is the array, it is an array of characters. word[START] is the single char which is searched in the array.

[zachb]

Using strchr for the second check does not make sense. Just use == here (as in your original code) or alternatively look up strncmp.

"aeiou" is the array, it is an array of characters. word[START] is the single char which is searched in the array.

Not sure I understand. I need it to return 1 if the vowel is the first letter, 2 if qu is the first second and 3 for all other consonants including a q that isnt followed by u(I dont think this case exists in reality though).