Problem with while loop in C++ console game.

[jalit]

I'm having trouble with my text based game whereby it asks the player to enter a gender for their character (M or F and lowercase variants), here is the part of my code I'm having trouble with:

    while (charGender != 'M' or charGender != 'm' or charGender != 'F' or charGender != 'f')
        {
            cout << "Please type a gender for your character (M or F): " << endl;
            cin >> charGender;
        }
        cout << "Correct Input.";

The problem is it keeps asking for the gender and does not proceed out of the loop.

By the way, charGender is a declared char variable.
Any help would be appreciated thanks.

[danharibo]

You need to use and there, Since it'd only exit the loop like that if it charGender was equal to 'M', 'm', 'F' and 'f' at the same time.

[jalit]

Ah sweet, using 'and' in place of the or's works thanks.

One more question, what is a good way of limiting the length that someone could input a string for example this part in my code? (charName is a string variable)

cout << "Please type a name for your character (8 characters max): ";
cin >> charName;

[danharibo]

Since it's a char*, you could use strlen.
Although, for user input. I'd suggest using std::string and getline(cin,str), since it allows for spaces, and is "safer" than C strings.

[jalit]

Could you give me an example?
Here is my full source code so far.

#include <iostream>
#include <cstdlib>
#include <windows.h>

using namespace std;

string charName;
char charGender;

int main()
{
    SetConsoleTitle("LittleRPG");
    cout << "Welcome to LittleRPG. This game was created by Jalit." << endl << endl;
    SetConsoleTextAttribute(GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE), 15);
    cout << "Please type a name for your character (8 characters max): ";
    cin >> charName;
    system("cls");

    while (charGender != 'M' and charGender != 'm' and charGender != 'F' and charGender != 'f')
        {
            cout << "Please type a gender for your character (M or F): " << endl;
            cin >> charGender;
        }
        cout << "Correct Input.";
    return 0;
}

[danharibo]

while(charName.length() == 0 || charName.length() > 8)
	{
		cout << "Please type a name for your character (8 characters max): ";
		getline(cin, charName);
	}

That should work.

[jalit]

Sweet man thanks for the help.

[DrMelon]

Good luck on your project! I look forward to seeing the results.

[nos217]

Also in many people's opinion, you should define your variables "charName" and "charGender" a bit later, and they are also a little strange names for variables too in my opinion. Well done so far though :).

[jalit]

I'm stumped again guys, I'm trying to create a menu system whereby the player can choose to either start a New game or read the instructions etc. here is the current source code:

#include <iostream>
#include <cstdlib>
#include <windows.h>

using namespace std;

string characterName;
string characterGender;
string menuSelection;

void NewGame()
{
    system("cls");
    // Ask for a character name.
    while (characterName.length() == 0 || characterName.length() > 8)
        {
            cout << "Please type a name for your character (8 characters max): ";
            getline(cin, characterName);
        }
    system("cls");

    // Ask for the character's gender.
    while (characterGender != "M" && characterGender != "m" && characterGender != "F" && characterGender != "f" || characterGender.length() > 1)
        {
            cout << "What gender is your character? (M or F): ";
            getline(cin, characterGender);
        }
}
void ReadMe()
{
    system("cls");
    cout << "Readme text goes here.";
}
int main()
{
    // Menu screen
    SetConsoleTitle("LittleRPG");
    cout << "Welcome to LittleRPG. This game was created by Jalit." << endl << endl;
    SetConsoleTextAttribute(GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE), 15);
    cout << "Type N to begin a New game." << endl << "Type R for Readme. " << endl;
    getline(cin, menuSelection);
    while (menuSelection == "N" || menuSelection == "n")
    NewGame();
    while (menuSelection == "R" || menuSelection == "r")
    ReadMe();
    return 0;
}

The problem I am having is that if the player types anything other than N, n, R or r. The application closes down.
Also am I doing functions wrong or is any of the code inefficient or weird? Sorry this is my first proper attempt at a C++ application yet alone a game.

[ZeekyHBomb]

You don't want while-loops there, but instead a chain of if(..) else if(..) there.
You can use a while-loop to ask for input if none was correct (that would be in the final else).

And yes, the code is quite weird, but since you seem to be a beginner that is nothing I would worry about.
I'll guess that you are using some resource to learn C++ from and if you just continue reading then you will see how to make things more efficient yourself.

[jalit]

I managed to fix it myself by using if statements for the menu selection then at the end I put main(); so it starts the main function over again.

[ZeekyHBomb]

Better to use a loop, or else you might get a stack-overflow.
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Call_stack_layout.svg]This[/url] is a neat little picture of that and by calling main again, you'll add an additional entry.

[st0rmforce]

a standard model for what you want is something like this

read menuSelection
while(menuSelection != quitCondition){
do stuff
read menuSelection
}