Chapter 4

1. Chapter 4 Strings and Screen I/O

2. Objectives • Define strings and literals. • Explain classes and objects. • Use the string class to store strings. • Perform basic string operations. • Use cin and cout. • Use special characters. • Format output. • Accept characters and strings as input.

3. Strings and Literals • Recall that a group of characters put together is a string. • C++ does not have a data type for strings. • Hard coded values or strings are called literals. • Literals can be numeric literals, string literals, or character literals.

4. Classes and Objects • An object-oriented string data type is referred to as a string class. • A string class is actually a definition used to create a string object. • A class is a generic definition from which an object is created. • An object is said to be an instance of a class.

5. Using the String Class • We will use the apstring class which is made up of two files: apstring.h and apstring.cpp. • Declaring a string object is much like declaring other variables: apstring MyString1; apstring MyString2("ABCDEF");

6. Assigning Strings to String Objects 1. You can assign the contents of one string object to another string object. MyString1 = MyString2; 2. You can assign a string literal to a string object. MyString1 = "string literal"; 3. You can assign a character literal to a string object. MyString1 = 'A';

7. Messages • One of the important concepts behind the use of objects is the idea of containment (or encapsulation). • An object hides the details of how data is stored and how operations work. • To make the object do what we want it to do, we send the object a message.

8. Obtaining the Length of a String • The message used to obtain the length of a string is simply length. l = MyString2.length(); • MyString2 is the name of the string that we want to send a message to. • The dot operator separates the name from the message. • The code inside the object that performs the length operation is called a method.

9. String Concatenation • Concatenation means adding one string onto the end of another string. • The + operator can be used to concatenate strings. MyString1 = MyString1 + ' ' + MyString2; • The += operator can also be used. MyString1 += MyString2;

10. Using cin and cout • The stream that brings data from your keyboard is cin, and the stream that takes data to your screen is cout. • The >> operator is also referred to as the extraction operator because it extracts data from the stream. • The << operator is also referred to as the insertion operator because it inserts data into the stream.

11. New Line and Other Special Characters • The \n character is called the new line character or the end-of-line character. • endl can be used in place of the \n. cout << i << '\n'; cout << i << endl; • Other special characters include: \t for a tab \\ for a backslash \' for a single quote \" for a double quote

12. Using setf and unsetf • The cout object has format options that can be changed by using setf and unsetf. • An example of the syntax: cout.setf(ios::right); • Formatting options include: left, right, showpoint, uppercase, showpos, scientific, and uppercase.

13. Using the I/O Manipulators • The most common I/O manipulators in C++ are setprecision and setw. • setprecision is used to set the number of digits that will appear to the right of the decimal point. • setw is used to change the number of spaces the compiler uses when it displays a number.

14. I/O Manipulator Examples Using setprecision cout << setprecision(2) << total; Using setw cout << setw(10) << i << setw(10) << j;

15. Inputting Characters • The >> operator can be used to input characters. • If the user enters more than one character, only the first character will be stored in the variable.

16. Inputting Strings • The getline method is used to input strings entered by the user. • Example cout << "Enter your first name: "; getline(cin, FirstName);

17. Flushing the Input Stream • After you have input a number using a cin statement, the new line character that is generated when you press Enter stays in the input stream. • You must remove the extra characters from the input stream before the getline method is executed. • You can use the following statement to "flush" the stream: cin.ignore(80, '\n');

18. Summary • Strings allow computers to process text as well as numbers. • Hard-coded numeric values are called numeric literals. Hard-coded text is called a string literal. • A class is a definition used to create an object. An object is said to be an instance of a class.

19. Summary • You can use cout to display the contents of a string object. • To make an object perform an operation on itself, you send the object a message. • The length method is used to determine the length of a string stored in a string object.

20. Summary • Concatenation is the operation of adding one string onto the end of another string. • The << and >> symbols are actually operators. The cin and cout keywords are actually objects. • The cin and cout objects are streams. A stream is data flowing from one place to another.

21. Summary • The \n character is a special character called the new line character or end-of-line character. • There are special characters for printing characters such as tab, the backslash, and quotes. • You can use endl in place of '\n'. • The cout object has format options that can be changed with the setf and unsetf methods.

22. Summary • setprecision is used to set the number of digits that will appear to the right of the decimal point. • setw is used to set the field width. • The >> operator can be used to input characters. • To input strings, use the getline method of the string class. • It is sometimes necessary to flush the input stream to remove characters left in it.