Question

OK, so I’m trying to make a string thing, so that the string is updated. Sort of like you have a string “hello” and I want it to update itself somewhat like “h” “he” “hel” “hell” “hello”

So, I have:

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <windows.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <conio.h>

using namespace std;

int main()
{
    system("title game");
    system("color 0a");
    string sentence = "super string ";

    for(int i=1; i<sentence.size(); i++){
        cout << sentence.substr(0, i) <<endl;
    }
    return 0;
}

The code returns out like:

“s
“su”
“sup”
“supe”
“super”

Obviously on different lines, but when I remove the end line, the sentence builder just goes berserk. It displays something like “spupsppuepr sttrrtrsubstringsubstring”

Is there anyway I can update the string on THE SAME LINE? (and not have it completely destroyed)

Answer 1

You could print a carriage return character '\r' at each iteration, returning the cursor to the beginning of the line:

for(int i=1; i<sentence.size(); i++){
    cout << '\r' << sentence.substr(0, i);
}

Or just output each character in sequence:

for(int i=0; i<sentence.size(); i++){
    cout << sentence[i];
}

You probably also want to insert a short delay for each loop iteration to achieve a typewriter effect.