Question

I’d like to request some help on my HW. I think I’m really close to figuring this out. Our CompSci class is currently shifting from learning Python to (introductory) C++. Since the two are vaguely similar, we’ve been advised, since we’re beginners, to code the problem in Python (which we’re very familiar with) and to translate it into C++ using the basics we just learned. The problem to solve is a simple “add the consecutive integers from 1 to that number, given a positive integer input.” So an example would be:

>>Enter a positive integer: 10
>>1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 = 55

The Python code (this was successful) that I’m attempting to translate into C++ is:

num = int(raw_input("Enter a positive integer: "))
sum = 0
for i in range(1, num):
    sum += i
    print i, "+",
print num, "=", sum+num

And my unsuccessful C++ code:

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main()
{
    int num;
    int sum;
    int i;
    sum = 0;
    cout << "Please enter a positive integer: " << endl;
    cin >> num;
    for (i=0; 1 <= num; i++)
        {
        sum = sum + i;
        cout << i << "+" << endl;
        }
    cout << num << "=" << sum + num << endl; 
    return 0;
}

But the output is simply an infinite, non-ending addition sequence from 0 to infinity, going top to bottom. Even worse is that it did not print in a straight line like I want it. As you can see, I quite literally tried to translate it word-for-word; I thought that’d be foolproof. Something must be wrong with my for loop. Since C++ doesn’t have a class of its own for “range” like Python does, I thought the middle condition statement (“1 <= num;”) would act as the range. Why didn’t my “=” sign print out? And I don’t understand why it won’t terminate when it reaches “num.” Think you can help? I thank you in advance for the replies.

Answer 1

This:

for (i=0; 1 <= num; i++)

should be:

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