Question

quick question: why wont this while-loop wait for input?
(ing is a string)

while(ing != "0")

{
    cout << "Ingredient name: ";
    cin >> ing;
    for(int i = 0; i < ing.length(); i++)
    {
        if(ing[i] == ' ')
        ing[i] = '#';
    }
    fil << ing << ':';
    cout << "Quantity: ";
    cin >> quant;
    fil << quant << ':';
}

it just spamms “ingredient name: quantity: ingredient name: quantity: …” and so on

Answer 1

Not sure what fil is.

I think your problem is that you need to flush the stream with a cin.ignore() at the bottom of the loop (or else do a cin.getline() to get your input). Otherwise the newline at the end of the input (when you press enter to submit the input) gets saved for the next cin which is your cin >> ing. So the newline gets used up there and doesn’t actually ask the user for new input.