Question

What is an elegant way of separating the console input (or a string) into two int variables?

Input format: a - bx

• a, b are integer always.
• x can be ignored.

Result:

int1 = a; 
int2 = -b;

Any hints appreciated.

Answer 1

Assuming exactly the form stated:

int a, b;
std::string op;
std::cin >> a >> op >> b;
if (op == "-") b = -b;

Note that this isn’t robust. It’ll treat anything other than - as a plus, and will recognise absolutely any input that starts with a pair of numbers separated by a blob of non-whitespace.