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C++ User Input Strings

User Input Strings

It is possible to use the extraction operator >> on cin to store a string entered by a user:

Example

string firstName;
cout << "Type your first name: ";
cin >> firstName; // get user input from the keyboard
cout << "Your name is: " << firstName;

// Type your first name: John
// Your name is: John

However, cin considers a space (whitespace, tabs, etc) as a terminating character, which means that it can only store a single word (even if you type many words):

Example

string fullName;
cout << "Type your full name: ";
cin >> fullName;
cout << "Your name is: " << fullName;

// Type your full name: John Doe
// Your name is: John

From the example above, you would expect the program to print "John Doe", but it only prints "John".

That's why, when working with strings, we often use the getline() function to read a line of text. It takes cin as the first parameter, and the string variable as second:

Example

string fullName;
cout << "Type your full name: ";
getline (cin, fullName);
cout << "Your name is: " << fullName;

// Type your full name: John Doe
// Your name is: John Doe

User Input Strings
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