Question

For some weird reason my input line cin.getline(oneLine, 80); is completely ignored when I put it in this else if block. I can’t understand why because when I move it somewhere else in the program, it works.

     else if (choice == "user-id")
     {   
        cout << endl << "Enter a full name e.g. John Smith ";
        char oneLine[80];
        cin.getline(oneLine, 80);
        cout << oneLine;                        
     }

---

Here’s the rest of my code. I’m new to C++ so I’m sure a lot of my conventions may be questionable at best.

int main( )
{
    while (true)
        {

        int pause;
        string choice = "proceed";
        string nameGiven;
        string userIdGiven;
        string result;
        using namespace std ;

        while ((choice != "name") && (choice != "user-id"))
        {   
            cout << "Would you like to search for a name or user-id? ";
            cin >> choice;
            if ((choice != "name") && (choice != "user-id"))
               cout <<"Please enter a valid choice (name or user-id)" << endl;
        }

        if (choice == "name") 
        {
            string dataType = "int";
            while (true)
            {    
                cout << endl << "Enter a valid user id (4 digit maximum) ";
                cin >> userIdGiven;

                if (valid(userIdGiven))
                   break;
                else
                    cout << endl << "Not a valid number. " << endl;
                   continue;
             }
             result = findData(userIdGiven, dataType);
             cout << "name: " << result;

         }

         else if (choice == "user-id")
         {   
            cout << endl << "Enter a full name e.g. John Smith ";
            char oneLine[80];
            std::getline(oneLine, 80);
            cout << oneLine;                       
         }

        string ans;
        cout << endl << "Would you like to play again? (yes/no) " << endl;
        cin >> ans;
        if ( (ans == "yes") || (ans == "Yes") || (ans == "Y") || (ans == "y") )
             continue;
          else
              break;

        cin >> pause;
     } 
return 0;
}

Answer 1

Your std::cin object is in a bad state (std::cin.good() == false) from a previous input operation. For example, you might have tried to read a number, but there were only nun-numeric characters in the input buffer.

Always check for input success before continuing using a std::istream.

Note: Don’t use the old input functions operating with char*, as they are more complicated and less safe to use than the new ones operating on std::string. In your case, use std::getline(std::istream&, std::string&, char = '\n').