problem comparing input values

[Matt Tacular]

i'm making a program in c++ that gets a binary number and converts it to an integer. But of coarse i've hit a snag, I need a way to store a binary number that's any length, then run through the number to see if a 2 or something is there, if it is then to ask for a new number. Here is what I thought would work, but of coarse, it doesn't. (it's not completed, i just wanted to see if i could find out if they entered something other than a one or zero here):

int binToDec()
     {
     string binaryToConv = ("0");
     bool reEnter = false;
 
     cout << "Enter a binary number to convert: " << endl;
     cin >> binaryToConv;
 
     for(int counter = 0; ;counter += 1)
         {
         reEnter = false;
         if((binaryToConv[counter] != 0) && (binaryToConv[counter] != 1))
              {
              reEnter = true;
              break;
              }
         if(counter == binaryToConv.size())
             {
              break;
             }
        }
        if(reEnter = true)
             {
              binToDec();
              }
     cout << "adsf";
     }

[John A]

Something tells me you're missing a = here:

if(reEnter = true)
             {
              binToDec();               }

Also, when you know that the number isn't true, you break out of the loop before the statement I just showed gets executed. Which brings up another point: why are you using recursion for a simple input validation?

[Matt Tacular]

I need to check if the number they enter only has ones and zeros. Also, once it's been validated, i'll need to go through every single digit from last to first for the conversion, but the part I want to get done now is just the validation part. You asked why I was using recursion, what should I be using?

[Lerner]

You could try something like this:

bool validInput = true;
 
cout << "Enter a binary number to convert: " << endl;
cin >> binaryToConv;
 
int len = binaryToConv.length();

for(int counter = 0; counter < len; ++counter)
{
   if((binaryToConv[counter] != 0) && (binaryToConv[counter] != 1))
   {
       validInput == false;
       break;
   }
}

if (validInput)
  binToDec(binaryToConv);
else
  //retry input

[~s.o.s~]

Why try to reinvent the wheel when you can do something like....

int main ( )
{
    using namespace std ;

    string my ;
    const char* const valid_char = "01" ;
    bool valid = true ;

    cout << "Please enter a string: " ;
    cin >> my ;
    getchar( ) ;

    if( my.length() == 0 || 
                my.find_first_not_of( valid_char ) != string::npos)
    {
        valid = false ;
    }

    if( valid )
        cout << "Ready for conversion..." ;
    else
        cout << "Please enter a binary number.." ;

    getchar( ) ;
    return 0 ;
}

[Matt Tacular]

Thank you very much guys, I've been trying to get this to work for two days and now I've got the first part done, woo! Now to attempt the manual conversion...