Member Avatar for Jon182

Hey guys I am just wondering why the following code gives the wrong number of characters from a file when the character count is the default? Thanks.

void main()
{
    int blank_count = 0;
    int char_count = 0;
    int sentence_count = 0;
    char ch;

    ifstream iFile("c:\test.txt");

    if (! iFile)
    {
        cout << "Error opening input file" << endl;
       
    }

    while (iFile.get(ch))
    {
        switch (ch) {
            case ' ':
                blank_count++;
                break;
            case '.':
                sentence_count++;
                break;
            default:
                char_count++;
                break;
        }
    }

    cout << "There are " << blank_count << " blanks" << endl;
    cout << "There are " << char_count << " characters" << endl;
    cout << "There are " << sentence_count << " sentences" << endl;
}
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  • Latest Post Latest Post by Jon182

Dani AI

Generated

Two quick, concrete points explain why the counts stay at their default (zero) and how to fix them.

First, the filename literal in 's code uses a single backslash: "c:\test.txt". In C++ that invokes escape sequences (for example "\t" is a tab), so the stream fails to open. The program prints the error but does not exit, so the input loop never runs and every counter stays at its initialized value. See C++ string literal escape rules for details (escape sequences). The practical fixes are: escape the backslash ("c:\\test.txt"), use a forward slash ("c:/test.txt"), or use a raw string literal (R"(c:\test.txt)"); also return or exit after a failed open.

Second, decide what "characters" means (as hinted). The posted switch counts spaces and periods separately, so char_count only gets non-space, non-period bytes. If the intent is to count every byte read, increment a total counter on every successful get. If the intent is to count printable characters, use std::isprint/std::isspace (cast to unsigned char before calling). Also consider treating '.', '!' and '?' as sentence terminators if required.

Minimal corrected pattern (illustrative):

std::ifstream in("c:\\test.txt");
if (!in.is_open()) { std::cerr << "Error opening file\n"; return 1; }

std::size_t total = 0, blanks = 0, sentences = 0;
char ch;
while (in.get(ch)) {
    ++total;
    if (ch == ' ') ++blanks;
    if (ch == '.' || ch == '!' || ch == '?') ++sentences;
}

Note: byte counts differ from character counts for multi-byte encodings (UTF-8); decode first if a Unicode-aware character count is needed.

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Member Avatar for Ancient Dragon

why do you think it is incorrect? Is the char count supposed to include spaces and periods? How about end-of-line terminating characters?

Why not consider question mark ? and exclaimation point! as end-of-sentence terminators/

Member Avatar for Jon182

Thanks for your reply Ancient Dragon, if you get a moment can you please see my other post. Thanks again

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