Command Line Interface

[RevengeOfTidus]

Hey everyone,

My friend and I are trying to create a basic command line interface to a research program we are doing. We have basic/intermediate knowledge of C++ but are having trouble with making it "idiot-proof." The program responds accordingly when we pass any integer value to the menu. However, whenever we pass a char/string value, it freaks out and prints the menu loop infinite amounts of times, not prompting the user again. What type of error-checking/correcting code should we use so that when the user inputs a char/string value, it re-prompts the user again?

Thank you for your time,
-RoT



#include <iostream>
#include <cmath>

using namespace std;

int main( int argc, char** argv ) {

int choice = 0;

cout << "Welcome to the OpenCV Test Program\n";
cout << "Please choose from the following to test out certain functions\n";

while (true){
choice = 0;
cout << "Note: Please do not enter anything but numbers!\n";
cout << "1. Display snap.jpg \n";
cout << "2. Display snap.jpg with 'grain'\n";
cout << "3. Display snap.jpg with applied edge detection algorithm\n";
cout << "4. Stream video\n";
cout << "5. Stream video with applied edge detection algorithm\n WARNING: Resource intensive\n";
cout << "6. Take picture from camera\n";
cout << "7. Take picture and compare to snap.jpg (experimental)\n";
cout << "8. Exit\n";
cin >> choice;


switch (choice){

case 1 : //choice 1
break;
case 2 : //choice 2
break;
case 3 : //choice 3
break;
case 4 : //choice 4
break;
case 5 : //choice 5
break;
case 6 : //choice 6
break;
case 7 : //choice 7
break;
case 8 : "Thank you for your time \n";
exit(0);
default : "Please enter a choice from the menu\n";
choice = 0;
break;

}//end switch
}//end while

}

[wmcbrine]

Take a look here for some tips:

http://augustcouncil.com/~tgibson/tutorial/iotips.html

[RevengeOfTidus]

This seems to be what I'm looking for. I'll give it a try soon. Thanks!

[miklcct]

Simple way:


int x;
cin >> x;
if(!x) {
// display error message
string x;
getline(cin, x); // discard the invalid line
}


Here's the full code used in my coursework, instead I take another approach: Read the entire line first and use wcstoul (for wchar_t string) or strtoul (for char string) to convert it to integer.


//! read a number with validation
/*! @return The number read
*/
std::size_t read_num() {
std::size_t n;
while(true) {
std::wstring str;
std::getline(std::wcin, str);
if(str.empty()) {
return -1;
} else if(str[0] >= L'0' && str[0] <= L'9') {
wchar_t *ptr;
n = std::wcstoul(str.c_str(), &ptr, 10);
if(!*ptr) {
break;
}
}
std::wcout << L"Invalid data entered. Try again: ";
std::wcout.flush();
}
return n;
}