{"id":7658,"date":"2022-10-05T09:54:58","date_gmt":"2022-10-05T09:54:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jquery-az.com\/?p=7658"},"modified":"2022-10-05T09:54:58","modified_gmt":"2022-10-05T09:54:58","slug":"cpp-getline-function","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jquery-az.com\/cpp-getline-function\/","title":{"rendered":"C++ getline() Function (3 Syntax variation examples)"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>What is C++ getline() function?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><strong>The getline() function is:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Defined in the <em><strong>&lt;string.h&gt;<\/strong> <\/em>header file<\/li>\n<li>Is used to take user input in single as well as multi-lines.<\/li>\n<li>A user can enter single or multiple words string<\/li>\n<li>The characters are extracted from the input stream by getline() function. These characters are appended to the string object until the <strong>delimiter<\/strong> character is met. (<em>Syntax section below will make it clearer<\/em>)<\/li>\n<li>The <strong><em>cin object<\/em><\/strong> can also be used to take user input (as shown in many examples of our C++ tutorials), however, it does not allow multiple lines or words &#8211; terminates where whitespace is met.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><strong>Syntax for using getline() function in C++<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>There are three variations in using the getline() function.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Syntax 1:<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>istream&amp; getline( istream&amp; is, string&amp; str, char delim );<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Syntax 2:<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>istream&amp; getline( istream&amp; is, string&amp; str );<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>There:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>is:<\/strong> specifies the <strong>input stream<\/strong> i.e. from where to read the input.<\/li>\n<li><strong>str<\/strong>: After reading from the stream, the input is stored in this string object.<\/li>\n<li><strong>delim<\/strong>: The getline() function stop reading further as this given delimiter is met in the input string.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Difference:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>You may notice, the only difference between the above two syntaxes is the third parameter. The first syntax contains <strong><em>char delim <\/em><\/strong>as the third parameter.<\/p>\n<p>So, you may specify a delimiter of your choice. For example, dot, comma, etc.<\/p>\n<p>In the case of the second syntax, you may not specify the delimiter, so the default is used as the delimiter.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Getline() function with character array<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>There is another syntax for using the getline() function with a character array:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>istream&amp; getline(char* , int size);<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This is explained with an example in the last section of this tutorial.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>An example that uses getline() function (two params)<\/strong><\/h3>\n<pre class=\"EnlighterJSRAW\" data-enlighter-language=\"cpp\">#include &lt;iostream&gt;\r\n\r\n#include &lt;string&gt;\r\n\r\nusing namespace std;\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nint main() {\r\n\r\n\u00a0 string str_name;\r\n\r\n\u00a0 cout &lt;&lt; \"What is your full name?\" &lt;&lt; endl;\r\n\r\n\u00a0 getline(cin, str_name);\r\n\r\n\u00a0 cout &lt;&lt; \"Hello and Welcome, \" &lt;&lt; str_name &lt;&lt; \"!\" &lt;&lt; endl;\r\n\r\n}<\/pre>\n<p><strong>Sample output:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7659\" src=\"https:\/\/www.jquery-az.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/12_1-CPP-getline.jpg\" alt=\"CPP-getline\" width=\"468\" height=\"105\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.jquery-az.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/12_1-CPP-getline.jpg 468w, https:\/\/www.jquery-az.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/12_1-CPP-getline-300x67.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 468px) 100vw, 468px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>In the above program:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A string variable is declared<\/li>\n<li>In the getline() function, we used two parameters.<\/li>\n<li>cin is for console input<\/li>\n<li>The entered name is displayed (try multiple words)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><strong>What if simply used cin rather getline() example<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>In the program below, we simply used input stream cin and displayed the value of a variable. Enter your full name and you can see the difference:<\/p>\n<pre class=\"EnlighterJSRAW\" data-enlighter-language=\"cpp\">#include &lt;iostream&gt;\r\n\r\n#include&lt;string.h&gt;\r\n\r\nusing namespace std;\r\n\r\nint main()\r\n\r\n{\r\n\r\n\/\/Creating variable\r\n\r\nstring str_name;\r\n\r\nstd::cout &lt;&lt; \"What is your full name? \" &lt;&lt; std::endl;\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\/\/Taking user input\r\n\r\ncin&gt;&gt;str_name;\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\/\/Display variable value\r\n\r\ncout &lt;&lt; \"Hello and Welcome, \" &lt;&lt; str_name &lt;&lt; \"!\" &lt;&lt; endl;\r\n\r\nreturn 0;\r\n\r\n}<\/pre>\n<p><strong>Sample output:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7660\" src=\"https:\/\/www.jquery-az.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/12_2-CPP-cin.jpg\" alt=\"CPP-cin\" width=\"457\" height=\"117\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.jquery-az.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/12_2-CPP-cin.jpg 457w, https:\/\/www.jquery-az.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/12_2-CPP-cin-300x77.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 457px) 100vw, 457px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In the sample output, you can see I entered the name \u201cMike Millan\u201d. However, the program only displayed the first name i.e. Mike. This is because; C++ compiler terminates it as it finds a whitespace in the string.<\/p>\n<p>This is where getline() function plays its role.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>An example of using three parameters in getline() function<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>As mentioned earlier, you may specify a delimiter of your choice in the third parameter of the getline() function.<\/p>\n<p>In this example, I used the dot (full-stop) a delimiter character in the getline(). See the code and a sample output below:<\/p>\n<pre class=\"EnlighterJSRAW\" data-enlighter-language=\"cpp\">#include &lt;iostream&gt;\r\n\r\n#include &lt;string&gt;\r\n\r\nusing namespace std;\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nint main() {\r\n\r\n\u00a0 string str_fruits;\r\n\r\n\u00a0 cout &lt;&lt; \"Enter your favourite fruits?\" &lt;&lt; endl;\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u00a0 \/\/getline function with dot delimiter\r\n\r\n\u00a0 getline(cin, str_fruits,'.');\r\n\r\n\u00a0 cout &lt;&lt; \"Hello and Welcome, \" &lt;&lt; str_fruits &lt;&lt; \"!\" &lt;&lt; endl;\r\n\r\n}<\/pre>\n<p><strong>Sample output:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7661\" src=\"https:\/\/www.jquery-az.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/12_3-CPP-cin-dilimeter.jpg\" alt=\"CPP-cin-dilimeter\" width=\"466\" height=\"125\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.jquery-az.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/12_3-CPP-cin-dilimeter.jpg 466w, https:\/\/www.jquery-az.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/12_3-CPP-cin-dilimeter-300x80.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 466px) 100vw, 466px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>in the output, you can see as we entered three fruit names as input. As I entered a dot after banana, the string terminated and it only displayed two fruit names.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Using the comma as a delimiter example<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Similarly, you may use other characters as delimiters in the getline() function. For example, a comma, semicolon, a , b, c, space, \u00a0etc.<\/p>\n<p>The following example uses a <strong>comma<\/strong> as a delimiter character:<\/p>\n<pre class=\"EnlighterJSRAW\" data-enlighter-language=\"cpp\">#include &lt;iostream&gt;\r\n\r\n#include &lt;string&gt;\r\n\r\nusing namespace std;\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nint main() {\r\n\r\n\u00a0 string str_fruits;\r\n\r\n\u00a0 cout &lt;&lt; \"Enter your favourite fruits?\" &lt;&lt; endl;\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u00a0 \/\/getline function with dot delimiter\r\n\r\n\u00a0 getline(cin, str_fruits,',');\r\n\r\n\u00a0 cout &lt;&lt; \"My fruits are:, \" &lt;&lt; str_fruits &lt;&lt; \"!\" &lt;&lt; endl;\r\n\r\n}<\/pre>\n<p><strong>Sample output:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7662\" src=\"https:\/\/www.jquery-az.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/12_4-CPP-getline-comma.jpg\" alt=\"CPP-getline-comma\" width=\"490\" height=\"125\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.jquery-az.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/12_4-CPP-getline-comma.jpg 490w, https:\/\/www.jquery-az.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/12_4-CPP-getline-comma-300x77.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 490px) 100vw, 490px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3><strong>An example of using getline() with character array<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>As mentioned in the section above, there is another syntax for using the getline() function with a character array. i.e.:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>istream&amp; getline(char* , int size);<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The following example shows a C++ program using it:<\/p>\n<pre class=\"EnlighterJSRAW\" data-enlighter-language=\"cpp\">#include &lt;iostream&gt;\r\n\r\n#include&lt;string.h&gt;\r\n\r\nusing namespace std;\r\n\r\nint main()\r\n\r\n{\r\n\r\n\/\/Declaring country array\r\n\r\nchar countries[50];\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\ncout&lt;&lt; \"Country Names: \";\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\/\/Specifying array in getline()\r\n\r\ncin.getline(countries, 50);\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\/\/Display entered country names\r\n\r\ncout &lt;&lt; \"\\nThe country names are :\"&lt;&lt;countries &lt;&lt; std::endl;\r\n\r\nreturn 0;\r\n\r\n}<\/pre>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7663\" src=\"https:\/\/www.jquery-az.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/12_5-CPP-getline-array.jpg\" alt=\"CPP-getline-array\" width=\"481\" height=\"119\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.jquery-az.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/12_5-CPP-getline-array.jpg 481w, https:\/\/www.jquery-az.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/12_5-CPP-getline-array-300x74.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 481px) 100vw, 481px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>In the program:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>We declared a character array to be used in the getline() function<\/li>\n<li>In the getline() implementation (<em><strong>cin.getline(countries, 50<\/strong><\/em>);), the array is specified along with the size in integer.<\/li>\n<li>This size parameter acts as the delimiter whereas entered value cannot exceed this limit.<\/li>\n<li>If input increases the limit, the additional characters are terminated.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Defined in the <string.h> header file. Is used to take user input in single as well as multi-lines. 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