[RESOLVED] Question about infinite word/phrase input, terminated by a specific word

Hey everyone. I'm new here, and I'm kinda newbie with C++. So, here's my question.

I want to make a program in C++ which receives phrases by the user, strings or char vectors, not decided which one to use yet. So, I want it to use a pointer, but not sure exactly how to program it. My idea is that there'll be a cicle which creates a new vector or a string with the pointer for each next word.... And the cicle ends when I write END.

To picture it a little more explicit:

Program example input:
(enter is for when the user presses enter)

Start inputing words:

Word (enter)
This is a word (enter)
this is not a word (enter)
It's a phrase (enter)
END (enter)

So, I'm not really sure if this can be done in C++, I mean I can do it with an array, but the size of it is fixed, so I can't really input an infinite list of words of phrases.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance

PS: It's a console program, not a graphic one, I'm not there yet :)

Curious that you used the word "vector" in your description, since that's exactly what you need....a vector of strings.

So, you're saying I should learn how to use the vector library?

What about the infinite cycle, terminated by "END"?

So, what you basically mean is a vector in a cycle?

I mean the idea of the program is:

The user starts inputting words or phrases, the word or phrase ends when the user presses enter. The program will keep asking for a word or a phrase until the user writes the word 'END'. So, the other thing is it should be dynamically assigned. That's my problem, can you help me?

You seem to know what needs to be done; what precisely is your problem in just doing it?

Could you put an example with C++ code, because I don't really know how to use vectors yet. I mean I did something similar with an array but it was finite. I have never used vector before, I more or less understand what it is, but never really used it.

Why don't you post your array code, and I'll show you how to modify it to use a vector. (A vector is basically just a wrapper around a dynamic array.)

Code:

---

#include <iostream>
using std::cout;
using std::cin;
using std::endl;
#include <string>

const int MAX=255;

int main(){

    char phrase[MAX];
    char phrases[MAX][MAX];

    cout<<"Please write all the phrases you want."<<endl;
    cout<<"To finish write \"END\""<<endl;
    cout<<endl;

    int x=0;
       
    char terminator[]="END";
    char temp[MAX];
       
    for(int i=0;i<MAX;i++){
               
            ++x;
            cin.getline(phrase,MAX);
            strcpy(temp,phrase);
            strcpy(&phrases[i][0],phrase);
            if (strcmp(temp,terminator)==0)
                    break;               
    }

    return 0;
}

---

Here it is. It's only working for 255 phrases... I know they are pretty much but I need the infinite version of this

Code:

---

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <vector>

using std::cout;
using std::cin;
using std::endl;
using std::string;
using std::vector;
using std::getline;

int main(){

    string phrase;
    vector<string> phrases;

    cout<<"Please write all the phrases you want."<<endl;
    cout<<"To finish write \"END\""<<endl;
    cout<<endl;
       
    char terminator[]="END";
       
    while (phrase != terminator){
            getline(cin,phrase);//note we are use the std::string version of getline, not istream::getline.
            phrases.push_back(phrase);
    }

    return 0;
}

---

Here's the update. If you want to avoid adding "END" to phrases, you can just put a pop_back after the loop, or an if statement around the push_back.

The code will be more efficient if you can .reserve() a certain number of phrases you think you're likely to get beforehand.

That was just what I needed, put in a very easy to understand way.

Thanks a lot Lindley!