Sorting String Pointer for Longest Word

[DawnDenise]

Volunteer C++ Gurus. Thank you in advance for your time. This site has saved my sanity.

I am working with my longWords function and cannot get it to stop displaying the same value (2293264).

I know that my code is a little janky because I modified it from array format to a pointer function. How do you convert and have the same functionality? Here is my work.

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;

// Function prototypes
int countWords(char *);
int longWords(char *);
void sentSlice(char []);

int main()
{ 
   const int SIZE = 257;    // Array size       
   char line[SIZE];         // To hold the user's sentence  
   char *str1;
   char *str2;
   
   // Get string from user    
   cout << "Enter a string (up to 256 characters): ";
   cin.getline(line, SIZE);
   
   // Store string in pointer array
   str1 = line;
   str2 = line;
   
   // Display original sentence
   sentSlice(str1);
   cout << "\n";
   cout << "Original Order:\n";
   cout << str1 << "\n\n";
   
   // Display letters backwards 
   cout << "Backwards:\n";
   for (int j = strlen(str1); j != 0; j--)
     {
     cout << str1[j];
     }
     
   cout << "\n\n";
   system("PAUSE");
   
         
   // Display the number of words in the sentence
   cout << "\nNumber of words: ";
   cout << countWords(str1) << "\n";
   
   // Display the longest word length
   cout << "Longest word length: ";
   cout << longWords(str2);
        
          
cout << endl << "\n";
system("PAUSE");
return 0;
}  

//******************************************************************
// Definition of function sentSlice. This function accepts a       *
// character array as its argument. It scanes the array looking    * 
// for a space. When it finds one, it executes a vertical shift.   *
// pg. 514                                                         * 
//******************************************************************

void sentSlice(char userSent[])
{
    int count = 0;  // Loop counter
    
    // Locate the spaces and replace with new line operator
    while (userSent[count] != '\0') 
       {
           if (userSent[count] == ' ')
              userSent[count] = '\n';
           count++; 
       }    
}


//*******************************************************************
// Definition of countWords. userSent is a pointer that points to a * 
// string. The function returns the number of words in the string   *
// pg. 516                                                          *                           
//*******************************************************************

int countWords(char *userSent)
{
    int times = 0;  // Number of times a space appears in the string
   
    // Step through the string counting occurences of a space
    while(*userSent != '\0')
    {
         if (*userSent == '\n')
             times++;
         *userSent++;    
    }
    return (times + 1);
}                                

//*******************************************************************
// Definition of longWords. userSent2 is a pointer that points to a *
// string. The function returns the length of the longest word in   *
// the string.                                                      *
//*******************************************************************


int longWords(char *userSent2)
{
    int times = 0;
    int counter = 0;
    int maxWord = -1;
    
    if (*userSent2 != '\n')
    {
        counter++;
    }    
    else if (*userSent2 == '\n')
    {
        if (counter > maxWord)
        {
            maxWord = counter;    
        }  
    counter = 0;
     }     
}

[mattjbond]

I doubt that this will even compile as it stands. You have no return from your longWords function.

As for converting a function from an array to a pointer it should not make too much of a difference. When you pass an array argument as a pointer you are passing in the address of the first element of the array. You can then access the itmes in the array using either the subscript operator [] or using the raw pointer and pointer arithmetic then dereferecing the pointer to get elements.

eg.

char line[256];
char *pc

pc = line; // sets line pc to the address of the first element of the array.

// use pc like so
char c;
c = pc[0]; // will give access to first element of line
c = *pc; // will give access to first element line

so...

c = pc[i]; // is equivalent to 
c = *(pc + i);

As your longWord function stands it is not doing anything to loop through the string, i'd suggest maybe splitting the string into individual tokens (words) and then checking the size each.