You could put the switch inside the loop (better as a do...while), let the default case handle the erroneous inputs. What is your if( ) condition becomes the while( ) condition.

Val

C++ Syntax (Toggle Plain Text)

	switch (ch)
	{
		case 'c': 
		case 'p': 
		case 't': 
		case 'g': cout << "Option '" << ch << "' selected\n";
                             break;
 
		default : cout << msg;
			cin.clear();
			while (cin.get() != '\n')
				continue;
			invalid = true;
	}

switch (ch) { case 'c': case 'p': case 't': case 'g': cout << "Option '" << ch << "' selected\n"; break; default : cout << msg; cin.clear(); while (cin.get() != '\n') continue; invalid = true; }

You can also let 'c','p' & 't' fall through to 'g'

Thanks for the advice, very much appreciated. I've altered the code as suggested and is a lot 'cleaner' looking.

Not bad, although it's still not formatted properly.
By the way, what does cin.clear(); do? You might want to look it up.
Another thing to look at is system("PAUSE"); See this

My understanding re cin.clear() is that if the cin fails (eof or mismatch of data) then further access or use of cin is prevented; to avoid this use the clear() method.

I guess you're probably suggesting that in this particular case it's not needed. Looking at the code I can't see how a mis-match of data cin >> ch could occur and I don't think EOF is an issue either. I hope I haven't embarrassed myself with this answer or response.

Taking this a step further in relation to cin.clear(). If the receiving variable is of a numeric type is that when cin.clear() would be considered in fixing up erroneous data entries.

Actually, no. All cin.clear() does is clear the error flags. If they were set, it does not fix any data entries. The way you're using it, the error is simply cleared and ignored. You never test for one, so you don't even know it happened.

What you suggested above is "If the receiving variable is of a numeric type" and you type in a letter instead, cin.clear() magically changes the letter to a digit. What in fact happens is the error flags are set, nothing is loaded into the variable (previous value remains unchanged), and the letter stays in the input stream for the next cin .