Code to get user input not executing/skipping in C++

Question

In the below code, I\'m running into an error when I try to get the user to input their name. My program just skips it over and goes right over to making the function calls with

Answer 1

After doing cin >> choice; inside char showMenu(), if a user inputs 1[ENTER], the char consumes 1 character from cin, and the newline stays inside the stream. Then, when the program gets to getline(cin, name);, it notices that there's still something inside cin, and reads it. It's a newline character, so getline gets it and returns. That's why the program is behaving the way it is.

In order to fix it - add cin.ignore(); inside char showMenu(), right after you read the input. cin.ignore() ignores the next character - in our case, the newline char.

And a word of advice - try not to mix getline with operator >>. They work in a slightly different way, and can get you into trouble! Or, at least remember to always ignore() after you get anything from std::cin. It may save you a lot of work.

This fixes the code:

char showMenu()
{
    char choice;

    cout << "LITTLETON CITY LOTTO MODEL:" << endl;
    cout << "---------------------------" << endl;
    cout << "1) Play Lotto" << endl;
    cout << "Q) Quit Program" << endl;
    cout << "Please make a selection: " << endl;
    cin >> choice;
    cin.ignore();

    return choice;
}