Question

I’m working on a project in c++ (which I just started learning) and can’t understand why this function is not working. I’m attempting to write a “Person” class with a variable first_name, and use a function set_first_name to set the name. Set_first_name needs to call a function(the one below) to check if the name has any numbers in it. The function always returns false, and I’m wondering why? Also, is this the best way to check for numbers, or is there a better way?

   bool Person::contains_number(std::string c){ // checks if a string contains a number
        if (c.find('0') == std::string::npos || c.find('1') == std::string::npos || c.find('2') == std::string::npos || c.find('3') == std::string::npos
        || c.find('4') == std::string::npos || c.find('5') == std::string::npos || c.find('6') == std::string::npos || c.find('7') == std::string::npos
        || c.find('8') == std::string::npos || c.find('9') == std::string::npos){// checks if it contains number

        return false;
        }
        return true;
    }

Answer 1

It always returns false because your logic is backwards. You are using the || operator with == npos checks. If any one particular digit is missing from the string, == npos evaluates to true and || is satisfied, so you return false. You need to using != npos checks and then return true if any check evaluates to true:

bool Person::contains_number(const std::string &c)
{
    if (c.find('0') != std::string::npos ||
        c.find('1') != std::string::npos ||
        c.find('2') != std::string::npos ||
        c.find('3') != std::string::npos ||
        c.find('4') != std::string::npos ||
        c.find('5') != std::string::npos ||
        c.find('6') != std::string::npos ||
        c.find('7') != std::string::npos ||
        c.find('8') != std::string::npos ||
        c.find('9') != std::string::npos)
    {
        return true;
    }

    return false;
}

Or:

bool Person::contains_number(const std::string &c)
{
    return (
        c.find('0') != std::string::npos ||
        c.find('1') != std::string::npos ||
        c.find('2') != std::string::npos ||
        c.find('3') != std::string::npos ||
        c.find('4') != std::string::npos ||
        c.find('5') != std::string::npos ||
        c.find('6') != std::string::npos ||
        c.find('7') != std::string::npos ||
        c.find('8') != std::string::npos ||
        c.find('9') != std::string::npos
    );
}

A simplier solution is to use find_first_of() instead of find():

bool Person::contains_number(const std::string &c)
{
    return (c.find_first_of("0123456789") != std::string::npos);
}