C++ help address book

[tiffrobe]

Hi I am new to C++. I'm trying to figure out how to make an address book that lets you search the contents by the first name. Here is my program. It displays all the names first and then its suppose to search for the a person info by the users input. I'm very confused!
[code=cpp]
#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <string>

using namespace std;

int main()
{
string line;
ifstream file("a7N.txt") ;

if (file.is_open() )
{
while (! file.eof() )
{
getline (file,line);
cout <<line << endl;


}
system("PAUSE") ;

ifstream file("a7N.txt") ;


char ch, fword;
string line1, num, num2,line4;
;

if(file >>ch>> line1 >> num >> num2 >>line4) {
cout << "[ "
<< ch << ' '
<< line1 << ' '
<< num << ' '
<< num2 << ' '
<< line4<<" ]"
<< endl;


;
}

// read a line using getline
if(getline(file ,line)) {
cout << "[ " << line << " ]" << endl;

cout<<"Please enter a Capital letter?";
cin>>fword;

if (ch == fword)
cout << "[ "
<< ch << ' '
<< line1 << ' '
<< num << ' '
<< num2 << ' '
<< line4<<" ]"
<<endl;
else
cout<< "No Name starts with that letter!"<<endl;

system("PAUSE") ;
return 0;



}
}
}[/code]

[keerthiramanarayan]

Hi,
It would be easy to reply to your query if you specified the structure of address book.

I will explain considering that your addressbook entry contains the data in the following format
<First Name> <Last Name> <Phone Number>.

You would be greatly helped by creating a structure that holds the data that you read from the file as follows.

#include <string>
using namespace std;
struct AddressBookEntry{
string firstName;
string lastName;
string phoneNumber;    /// To support +91-080-12345678 type of numbers
};

Next thing to do is to store the data that you retrieve from the file into a
data structure. To retrieve based on the first name (and you are sure that there are only unique first names) store the data into a map. This is a structure provided by the Standard Template Libary of C++.

Declare the map as

#include <map>
map<string,struct AddressBookEntry> AddressList;

To use the map do the following.

struct AddressBookEntry e1;
e1.firstName = "pqr";
e1.lastName = "xyz";
e1.phoneNumber = "1234567890";
AddressList[e1.firstName] = e1;

to retrieve do the following

struct AddressBookEntry retrievedEntry=AddressList[inputtedName];
<use retrieved entry data here>

Finally after you have done using the AddressList. clear the structure

AddressList.clear()

[tiffrobe]

I had added a structure before you posted but i am little confused on the map. I'm going to research it because i don't think we have learned that yet.


code: (text)

1.struct addressbook
2.{
3. string Name[45]; //name of person
4. string Age[2]; //Age
5. string SSN[9]; //Social Security number
6. string Ad[40]; // address
7. } ;
8. void Searchcontact(f stream &);

[tiffrobe]

I went and redid my code using what I learned from class, but my programs keeps saying there is no name that starts with that letter even if there is?


[code=cpp]
#include <string>
#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <cstdlib>
using namespace std;

struct adressbook
{
string Name; //name of person
string Age; //Age
string SSN; //Social Security number
string Ad; // address
} ;

void getfunction(adr essbook contact[], ifstream &file)
{
int i = 0;
string line;
if (file.is_open() )
{
while (! file.eof() )
{
//read line by line
getline (file,line);
contact[i].Name = line; //first line is a name so store it in the array
getline (file, line);
contact[i].Age = atoi(line.c_str ()); // converting string to an int.
getline (file, line);
contact[i].SSN = atol(line.c_str ()); // converting char to long
getline(file, line);
contact[i].Ad = line;
getline(file, line); //read the space in between entries
i = i+1;
};
for (int k = 0; k < i; k++) //i is the number of contacts
{
cout << contact[k].Name << endl;
cout << contact[k].Age << endl;
cout << contact[k].SSN << endl;
cout << contact[k].Ad << endl << endl;
}
}
}

int main ()
{
int i = 0;
adressbook contact[50];
string fword; // first letter of the name!
string line;
ifstream file("a7N.txt") ;

if (file.is_open() )
{
while (! file.eof() )
{
getline (file,line);
cout <<line << endl;


}
system("PAUSE") ;
}

getfunction(con tact,file);
cout<<"Pleas e enter a Capital letter?";
cin>>fword;

if (contact[i].Name==fword)// Searching to see if the input Letter matches the name

cout<< line<<endl;
else
cout<< "No Name starts with that letter!"<<endl; // if no name matches then this is the output


system("PAUSE") ;
return 1;
}
[/code]

[keerthiramanarayan]

From what i can make out you do not have a function which iterates through the list and finds the name.
For such a function you would need how many records you read from the file (missing in your code). You can return the count from the function.
Secondly you need to include the following code in a for / while loop

[code=cpp]
if (contact[i].Name==fword)// Searching to see if the input Letter matches the name
[/code]

[tiffrobe]

ok. Thank you very much! I will try that.