Yet Again More C++ Help

[Archerzz]

How do you get a C++ program to open another .exe file like it is going to prompt you for a password then if you get it right it will open firefox.exe but if you get it wrong it will open a batch file that will log you off.

[markiemrboo]

#include <windows.h>

ShellExecute(NULL, "open", "C:\\WinNT\\explorer.exe", "C:\\Program Files", "C:\\", SW_SHOW);

 

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default....hellexecute.asp

[Vegiemaster]

Ok, this thread is now hijacked! (Archerzz and I are working on the same program and I don't feel like starting a new thread)

 

Basically in this portion of code I am trying to display a string after being converted from an array of chars. It works all right except for one thing. The newly created string prints what I typed but is followed by a load of gibberish. If I type "hello", it prints "hello(insert random ASCII here)"

I am a total n00b at C++, so any help is much appreciated. Thanks.

 

 

          y=0;
         while(y!=5)
         {
              password[y] = getch();
              printf("*");
              y++;
         }
         string temp=password;
         cout << temp;

[Kamikaze_Badger]

I'm sure there's a function somewhere for... no... that's string class to null terminated array...

 

 

Brain... locking... UP!

[Vegiemaster]

Huh?

 

Am I doing something horribly wrong?

Edited November 9, 2005 by Vegiemaster

[Verran]

Ok, this thread is now hijacked!  (Archerzz and I are working on the same program and I don't feel like starting a new thread)

 

Basically in this portion of code I am trying to display a string after being converted from an array of chars.  It works all right except for one thing.  The newly created string prints what I typed but is followed by a load of gibberish.  If I type "hello", it prints "hello(insert random ASCII here)"

  I am a total n00b at C++, so any help is much appreciated.  Thanks.

          y=0;
         while(y!=5)
         {
              password[y] = getch();
              printf("*");
              y++;
         }
         string temp=password;
         cout << temp;

574516[/snapback]

 

Have you properly terminated your string? I can't see your whole code, so I don't know.

 

After you build a character array out of single characters, you need to "terminate" it. Basically, you put a special character at the end that says "the string is done". It works like this: If you want to make a char array that has the word "cool" in it, it's contents would look like this

 

Char[0] = 'c'

Char[1] = 'o'

Char[2] = 'o'

Char[3] = 'l'

Char[4] = '/0'

 

The '/0' is the null character and it ends any string. Yes, /0 is actually two characters, but the compiler will treat it like one.

 

When you do a cout (for instance) on that string, the output stream will get to the '/0' and know the string is done. If the '/0' is not there, the output stream will often continue outputting whatever junk happens to be in memory after the string.

 

Not sure if this is your problem, but it is a common mistake with strings that can cause what you're seeing.

[Vegiemaster]

hmm, ok but the gibberish is also present after each individual char. How would I tell each char that it is done, without deleting the char?

[DECwakeboarder]

string temp=password;

I don't think that this is possible, but I believe you could just use something like:

string password += getch();

and that should work...Give me sometime, maybe tomorrow night I can work something out for you.

[Vegiemaster]

Ok thanks I'll try something like that tomorrow. I'll be off to bed now. In case you guys don't know, I'm trying to create a password thing that writes *'s instead of what you type, but you probably know that already.

[Verran]

hmm, ok but the gibberish is also present after each individual char.  How would I tell each char that it is done, without deleting the char?

574532[/snapback]

Nah, you don't want to terminate after every char, that's no good.

 

I just reinstalled Dev C++ because I wanted to check this out myself

 

I did this:

#include <iostream>
#include <iomanip>
#include <string>
#include <conio.h>

using namespace std;

int main()
{
        
        char password[5];
        int y;
        
        cout << "Enter Password:  ";
        
        y=0;
        while(y!=5)
        {
             password[y] = getch();
             printf("*");
             y++;
        }
        password[5] = '\0';
        cout << "\nYou entered:  '" << password << "'\n";
        
        cout << ("Press ENTER to continue.\n");
        getchar (); // wait for input

  return 0;
  
}

 

That works like I think you want it to. Give it a shot and let me know if it works...

 

PS

I always get my slashes mixed up. The null char is '\0'.... NOT '/0'

 

EDIT###

Tested it without the conversion to string, and it works just fine. The string.h header should let you treat char* like a string in most cases. I updated the code above. That works for me, at least how I think it should

[Kamikaze_Badger]

The compiler treats a traditional NULL as a 0 when the \ operator is placed before it, like it does with a normal \ when it's written as \\.

 

BAH! dangIT! YOU GOT ME PROGRAMMING AGAIN!

[Vegiemaster]

Thanks alot, Verran I got it to work! Thanks everyone for your help.