Pretty new programmer with a slightly complex problem...

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February 1st, 2006, 11:18 PM

AniamL

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Pretty new programmer with a slightly complex problem...

Okay, I'm a pretty new programmer, but I've decided to tackle a rather sophisticated project by myself. I've done it all by myself, with extensive debugging (only had to look at a book to figure out the ifstream business!) but I'm hung up with one slight problem.
The basic function of the code is to let the user input a word, and then, with the help of a word list, display the first word that contains all the original word's letters minus one (as in removing one letter then rearranging the remaining letters.)
Example:
sprite
spite

Then the following word is passed through the same process, yielding:

pits
tip
it
i

(or other words that also fit the criteria)

The problem I have is that my program only runs through the word list once. So if the word list is:

i
it
tip
pits
spite

Then if you type in sprite, only spite will come up, and then the program will end (because it reaches the end of the word list).
The reason for loops and while loops don't work is because I'm running an ifstream (newfile) and so the next iteration of the loop, newfile won't start at the top again. The only way I know to get the ifstream to start anew is to use another stream (as in typing "ifstream newfile2"). I'm sure there is a very easy solution, but this is my first true venture into file streams. Hopefully one of you can help me.

PHP Code:


		
			
#include <iostream>

#include <stdlib.h>

#include <string>

#include <fstream>

using namespace std;

int InWord(char character, string word)

{

    int x = 0, match = 0;

    for(x;x<word.length();x++)

    {

        if(character==word[x])

            match = 1;

    }

    

return match;

}

int main()

{

int x = 0, loop = 1, next = 0, counter=0;

string word, word2, longerword;

cout << "Enter a word.\n";

cin >> word2;

ifstream newfile("c:\\wordlist2.txt");

while(loop)

{

    if(word2.length() < 2)

    {

    cout << "Congratulations, you found a winning word!\n";

    loop = 0;      //achieved goal, loop ends.

    }



    if(next == 0 || word == word2)

    newfile >> word;



/*following if statement makes sure word is the right length and

 makes sure a new word can be accessed if the previous word 

had the wrong characters, i.e. next == 0 */



    if(word.length() != word2.length() - 1 || next == 1)         

    {                                                     

        do{                                               

        newfile >> word;                                

        }while(word.length() != word2.length() - 1);

    }



    cout << word << endl;

    for(int j=0;j<word.length();j++)

    {

//function checks to see if the word generated from newfile

//matches every one of input's letters

        if(InWord(word[j],word2))         

        {                                 

            //cout << "yes.\n";

            next = 0;

        }

        else

        {

            //cout << "Sorry.  No match.\n";

            counter++;

            next = 1;

            loop = 1;

            break;  //makes sure next doesn't get turned back to 0

                                //and also exits the for loop

        }

    }

    if(next==1)

    {

        cout << "Sorry, " << counter << " characters did not match.\n"; //# of chars incorrect

        counter = 0;

    }

    if(next == 0 && word != "")

    {

        cout << "Congratulations!  You found a match!  Your match is \"" << word << "\"!\n";

        word2 = word;  //continues down the chain of deleting letters, all the way to one letter

    }



}    

infile.close();

return 0;

}

This is my word list, just for reference:
arsenic
carneys
shroud
yearns
earns
test
gopher
near
word
ran
blah
an
i
a

In case the code isn't clear (sorry), I'll try to describe it better for you. Thanks for the help (and yes, this is for my own random nerdy purposes, it isn't for homework...)

February 1st, 2006, 11:43 PM

AniamL

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In addition

I also realized that my "anagram finder" function potentially messes up when a letter is repeated in a word... but never mind that, I'll try to fix it once I squash the other bug.

February 4th, 2006, 05:41 AM

Itsacon

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You can reset the ifstream pointer to the beginning of the file by using:

C++ Code:

Original - C++ Code
newfile.seekg(0,ios_base::beg);

newfile.seekg(0,ios_base::beg);

Do that at the end of each loop, and it should solve the problem.

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February 4th, 2006, 05:42 AM

Itsacon

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Note: see here for a full overview of the options in the different stream libraries.

February 8th, 2006, 12:16 AM

AniamL

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Itsacon

Note: see here for a full overview of the options in the different stream libraries.

Awesome, thank you. I fixed the problem by means of vectors (which use a lot more memory, I'm assuming) but your help allows me to write much more elegant and precise code. Thanks.

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