C++: getline is beings skipped for user input

Question

The first call for getline() is being skipped but the second call is working. What am I doing wrong?

string animal, q;
cout << "Darn, I lost. What was is?";

getline(cin, animal);//this is being skipped
cout << "Enter a question that is true for a(n) " << animal << " and false for a(n) " << question->value << ": ";
getline(cin, q);

possible duplicate of [Why does std::getline() skip input after a formatted extraction?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/21567291/why-does-stdgetline-skip-input-after-a-formatted-extraction) — user657267, Jun 17 '15 at 05:17
try `getline(cin >> std::ws, animal);` and comment with the result. — Mohit Jain, Jun 17 '15 at 05:17
Can you please try to create a [Minimal, Complete, and Verifiable Example](http://stackoverflow.com/help/mcve), because that code you show will not, by itself, exhibit the problems you're having. — Some programmer dude, Jun 17 '15 at 05:23
Thanks for commenting you guys, but I found out my problem. I posted it below. — mr nooby noob, Jun 17 '15 at 05:25

Sourav Kanta · Answer 1 · 2015-06-17T05:25:54.800

1

Looks like you had some other input before this.Put a getchar() before getline to consume buffer stored characters.

 getchar();
 getline(cin, animal);

edited Jun 17 '15 at 05:25

answered Jun 17 '15 at 05:19

Sourav Kanta

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score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 17 '15 at 05:30

If data is like hello\n how are you? and you use cin to read hello and getline to read how are you? it won't work. because the getline will read \n and not the the following line to fix this. you can use cin.ignore() to ignore \n and then use getline to read the following line.

score -1 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 17 '15 at 05:24

-1

I figured it out, it was being somewhere else in my code I used the standard "cin" rather than getline(), and I guess there was still something in the buffer, like @Sourav Kanta said. I guess I should either use one or the other next time, and not both.

answered Jun 17 '15 at 05:24

mr nooby noob

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Also next time, please try searching for a solution as this particular question is *extremely* common on SO. – user657267 Jun 17 '15 at 05:31

C++: getline is beings skipped for user input

3 Answers3