Why Is My `getline()` Function Not Accepting User Input in C ?

Troubleshooting getline() in C

When attempting to utilize the getline() method to capture user input, you may encounter unexpected behavior where the program halts without accepting input.

Consider the following example:

string messageVar;
cout << "Type your message: ";
getline(cin, messageVar);

Despite the presence of the cout statement prompting the user, the program will prematurely terminate without collecting input.

Resolution

The issue arises due to the nature of the >> operator, which leaves a newline character in the input buffer. This character conflicts with getline(), which expects input to terminate at a newline.

To mitigate this problem, it is crucial to flush the newline character from the buffer. This can be achieved using the cin.ignore() method.

The corrected code should look like this:

string messageVar;
cout << "Type your message: ";
cin.ignore();
getline(cin, messageVar);

The cin.ignore() statement clears the newline character from the buffer, allowing getline() to function correctly.

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