Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Zrk2]

So I'm writing a primitive spellchecker this time, and I was given this function by the prof:

Code: [Select]

if (stricmp((filedata.c_str(),dictionarydata.c_str())==0))
Where filedata and dictionary data are two strings I have previously acquired. I get the error "function does not take 1 arguments" and also "argument of type 'bool' is incompatible with 'const char'." Why is this?

[cerapa]

That's quite simple.

( (filedata.c_str(),dictionarydata.c_str())==0  )
is a boolean. And stricmp() doesn't take booleans. Actually, I don't know what the hell that is. I have no idea what (x, y) == 0 does.

I think the function should be
if (stricmp( filedata.c_str(), dictionarydata.c_str() ) == 0)

[MagmaMcFry]

Code: [Select]

if (stricmp(filedata.c_str(),dictionarydata.c_str())==0)

FTFY

[Zrk2]

Thanks. That makes sense.

Next question, in the same program I have this loop to do the actual checking.

Code: [Select]

do {
        inputfile>>filedata;
[Removing the extraneous characters]
dictionary.open("dictionary.txt");
do {
cin>>dictionarydata;
if (stricmp(filedata.c_str(),dictionarydata.c_str() ) == 0)
dictionarycounter++;
} while (!dictionary.eof());
if (dictionarycounter==0)
cout<<filedata<<endl;
dictionarycounter=0;
} while (!inputfile.eof());
But it prints nothing. I've tried rearranging it several different ways and nothing seems to happen. If I take out the nested loop it'll print all the words from my file just fine. And I have made certain there are in fact misspelled words in the file I'm spellchecking.

[MagmaMcFry]

Shouldn't you read from dictionary instead of cin?

[Zrk2]

Oh man, of course. That helps. I hate when I do shit like that.

[MagmaMcFry]

Also, may I suggest that you only read your dictionary into memory once? You read the entire dictionary from the disk for every word in your loop.
If you already have access to the container libraries, you can read the dictionary into a set<string>, and check for misspellings with (yourSet.count(possiblyMisspelledWord) == 0).

[Zrk2]

We aren't allowed to use anything not discussed in class. Anyway, I fixed a couple small problems, yielding this:

Code: [Select]

do {
        inputfile>>filedata;
[Removing the extraneous characters]
dictionary.open("dictionary.txt");
do {
dictionary>>dictionarydata;
if (stricmp(filedata.c_str(),dictionarydata.c_str() ) == 0)
dictionarycounter++;
} while (!dictionary.eof());
if (dictionarycounter==0)
cout<<filedata<<endl;
dictionarycounter=0;
} while (!inputfile.eof());
And it still outputs nothing. I know everything except the stricmp loop works, because when I take it out the program outputs all the words in the file, less the characters I removed, but when I put that loop back in it prints nothing. I've concluded that my logic isn't broken, because I've changed the if statement with dictionary counter to be if if (dictionarycounter>0), and still nothing happens. I'm afraid I have no clue what the issue is.

[Skyrunner]

Warning: may be incorrect.

Your logic probably is incorrect, somewhere. O_o Rarely is the code wrong and you right.

What does stricmp do? IBM docs say that it compares the strings and returns <0, 0, or >0, when they are lesser than, equivalent to, and greater than, respectively. What does greater than/lesser than mean? It implies length, but ... :/
I tried testing with codepad but it isn't in its library. Probably a compiler-specific extension.

Testing eof() in a do-while loop seems a bit weird, too—I think you'll end up pulling from the stream on time too many, but that isn't relevant.

[RulerOfNothing]

stricmp actually determines the lexicographical ordering of two words without regard to case.

[Skyrunner]

... Huh. Why would the class have to use stricmp instead of some other, less roundabout function? >_>
Some other suggestions; Step through the code with a debugger and smaller dictionary and input files to see if eof() happens too late, and when ++ is called.

[RulerOfNothing]

So what exactly is the program supposed to do? I've looked at it several times and it seems to output all words in the input file that are not in the dictionary.

[Zrk2]

I found my problem; I was missing an "=" in an if statement, so it was resetting one of my counters instead of working as an actual if statement.

Yeah, I'm using stricmp because I have to, not because it's the best way.

[Skyrunner]

http://thc.org/root/phun/unmaintain.html

"How To Write Unmaintainable Code — Ensure a job for life! "

This made me laugh today XD

[MagmaMcFry]

http://thc.org/root/phun/unmaintain.html

"How To Write Unmaintainable Code — Ensure a job for life! "

This made me laugh today XD

That page is surprisingly informative, even if you don't intend to obfuscate your code.