I need to get a file path from the user in a program I''m writing, so I was using cin.getline() with a character string to get it. This worked just fine until I moved the block of code into another function. Now, the program simply skips the cin.getline() altogether the first time it reaches it. If I use just plain cin, it works, but it will not take spaces, which becomes a problem. Though I''m not sure it will do any good, here''s the block of code in question:

   int flag = 0;
  while (flag == 0)
  {
    cout << "What is the file path?: ";
    char path[50];
    cin.getline(path, 50);

    fstream file;
    file.open (path, ios::in);

    if ( file.is_open() ) //if the file is opened successfully...

    {
      flag = 1;  //make it so that the while loop doesn''t repeat

      filePath = path;
    }
    if ( ! file.is_open() )
    {
      cout << "That file could not be opened!\n"
           << "Please check the path and try again.\n\n";
    }

    file.close();
  }

Basically, this is just getting a file path, making sure that it is good, and if it isn''t repeating the process. When I go through it the first time, however, it skips directly to the output of "That file could not be opened!", but when it repeats it acts normally. I am including the iostream and fstream headers. Any suggestions? Thanks!

VC6 by any chance? The STL implementation supplied with that version of MSVC is buggy; find fixes here.

After fixing, see if the condition persists. Then we''ll know it''s in your source.

Try adding a std::cin.ignore( ) call before or after your getline statement (I dont remember where exactly). This has fixed similar sounding issues in the past.

[edited by - _Twiggie_ on March 23, 2004 5:30:36 PM]

Thanks everyone...I''m actually using Dev-C++, but that bug may still apply.

Anyways, putting cin.ignore() before the cin.getline() statement solved the problem. I don''t know the reason that it helps, but I guess I can research that on my own.