Using Array for Find Function

[gregarion]

Hey, i was reading up on find function and i came across this line.

size_t find ( const char* s, size_t pos, size_t n ) const;

Correct me if im wrong, but it basically allows us to search a string based on the information inside an array right?

After searching online , i realize that alot of people use it to check how many times a certain character which they input will be in the array.

for example.

array = ["ttt ttt ttt"]
basically , they will input in the character they want to find ,(in this case 't) , and the prog will count how many times 't' appears in the array.

What i am curious to know if this function can be used like the way i did below. i tried typing out this code but it dosnt seem to work. What i am trying to do is to input in a string and then using the array to find if any of the characters in the array exist.

int main()
{
   string str = "BE";

   int b = 0 ;

   const int arraySize2 = 19;
   char array2[arraySize2] ={'A','B','E','F','G','H','J','K','N','O','P','Q','R','S','T','U','W','Y','Z'};

   for (int i = 0 ; i < str.length() ; i ++)
     int b = str.find(array2[i]);

   cout << b << endl;

Is it possible to be used this way and if it is, what is the problem with my coding?

[Ancient Dragon]

variable b is declared twice. Remove the declaration on line 11. And it should be size_t, not int

[thomas_naveen]

Instead of iterating over the string, you should be iterating over the array. Replace < str.length() with < arraySize2

Otherwise you are looking for only A & B.

Also follow AD's point of multiple declaration.

[tintin.iitk]

@gregarion, I'm not sure what you're trying to do with the array str.. But I guess your goal was to find the number of occurence of certain characters in the array str. But that won't be given by find function.
size_t find ( const char* s, size_t pos, size_t n ) const;
find function basically returns the position of the first occurence of the sequence s(only first n characters considered) in the string str(starting from position pos).. If no occurence, it returns -1.
so, str("Hello").find("ll") will return 2(coz ll is at position 2), str("Hello").find("ll", 3) will return -1(coz ll is not present starting from position 3, i.e. in "lo") and str("Hello", 3).find("ll", 3, 1) will return 3(coz l is at position 3 in "***lo").
http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/string/string/find/

If you want to find out number of occurences, do this:

int _occurences(const string& str, char s, size_t start)
{
	if (start == str.length())
		return 0;
	else
		return _occurences(str, s, start+1) + ((str[start] == s) ? 1 : 0);
}

int occurences(const string& str, char s)
{
	// assuming str, s are non-null
	return _occurences(str, s, 0);
}

int main()
{
   string str = "BE";

   /*int b = 0 ;*/

   const int arraySize2 = 19;
   char array2[arraySize2] ={'A','B','E','F','G','H','J','K','N','O','P','Q','R','S','T','U','W','Y','Z'};

   for (size_t i = 0 ; i < arraySize2 ; i ++)
   {
     //int b = str.find(array2[i]);
	 cout << "Occurences of " << array2[i] << " = " << occurences(str, array2[i])
		 << endl;
   }


   /*cout << b << endl;*/
}

[Freaky_Chris]

@tintin,

Recommending the use of a recursive solution is rather an obscure method of helping someone out. Since everyone knows that a recursive function isn't exactly the most efficient solution by any means, although in normally provides a neater looking solution that is easier to code. 99 times out of 100 they turn out to be resource hungry machines.

Chris

[tintin.iitk]

@Freaky_Chris, I agree that recursion is a path best avoided unless you're too suicidal or too good. But I wasn't encouraging it in any way, plus in this scenario I was more than sure that recursion is a pretty safe, even though lucrative, way to go.
@gregarion, please take note that as Freaky_Chris pointed out, recursion is something we should avoid if we can.. So please don't just believe in copying others' codes( or methods in general), evaluate things for yourself; in this case, work out the non-recursion based occurance() function.

[gregarion]

i cant use the string.find as it only finds one for one char at a time. Thus if i were to use it, i would have to type it out 19 times? i am thinking if there is a shorter way to do it... I tried doing this...

bool testRoman(string r) {
        const int arraySize2 = 19;
        char array2[arraySize2] ={'A','B','E','F','G','H','J','K','N','O','P','Q','R','S','T','U','W','Y','Z'};
       
         
  

         for(int c = 0 ; c < arraySize2 ; c++)
                    for(int e = 0; e < r.length(); e++)
                        if(array2[c] == r[e])
                        {
                            return true ;
                            
                        }
         
              
              else {
                  return false ;
              }
        }





       int main()
    {
           string r = "DDA";

     

           testRoman(r);
  
          if ( testRoman(r)){
             cout << "got number" << endl;

         }
          else{
              cout << "romans" << endl;
          }



}

When my input string contain a single alphabet, it is able to detect if the character is in the array or not. But when i input something like "DDR" , it displays the output saying "roman" when it should be displaying "got number" as there is a 'R' in the array.

What i am trying to do is to search the entire string for any character in the array. If such a character is detected, the program will then output a message and stop the check.

Is there a way to correct my array so it can do such a function?

[mrnutty]

This :

char array2[arraySize2] ={'A','B','E','F','G','H','J','K','N','O','P','Q','R','S','T','U','W','Y','Z'};
   for (int i = 0 ; i < str.length() ; i ++)
     int b = str.find(array2[i]);

can be replaced with this :

if( str.find_first_of("ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ") == string::npos){
 letter not found.
}

but it seems that you are trying to find the number of occurrence of a
letter right ? If so then what you should is just loop over the string
and count how many letters occur there of certain type.

[mrnutty]

Oh read your last post. What you need to use is string.find_first_not_of().
Here is another example :

string romanCharacters = "IVXLCDM";
string str1= "XXIID";
string str2= "21341";
if( str1.find_first_not_of(romanCharacters) == string::npos){
  cout <<str1 << " is roman numerials\n";
}
 else cout << str1 << " is not roman numerials\n";

if(str2.find_first_not_of("0123456789") == string::npos){
 cout << st2 << " is not a number\n";
}
else cout << str2 << " is a number\n";