• Log in

getline reads characters from an input stream and places them into a string:

[edit] Parameters

[edit] Return value

input

[edit] Notes

When consuming whitespace-delimited input (e.g. int n; std::cin >> n;) any whitespace that follows, including a newline character, will be left on the input stream. Then when switching to line-oriented input, the first line retrieved with getline will be just that whitespace. In the likely case that this is unwanted behaviour, possible solutions include:

• An explicit extraneous initial call to getline.
• Removing consecutive whitespace with std::cin >> std::ws .
• Ignoring all leftover characters on the line of input with cin.ignore(std::numeric_limits <std::streamsize >::max(), '\n');.

[edit] Example

#include <iostream>
#include <sstream>
#include <string>
 
int main()
{
 // greet the user
 std::string name;
 std::cout << "What is your name? ";
 std::getline(std::cin, name);
 std::cout << "Hello " << name << ", nice to meet you.\n";
 
 // read file line by line
 std::istringstream input;
 input.str("1\n2\n3\n4\n5\n6\n7\n");
 int sum = 0;
 for (std::string line; std::getline(input, line);)
 sum += std::stoi (line);
 std::cout << "\nThe sum is " << sum << ".\n\n";
 
 // use separator to read parts of the line
 std::istringstream input2;
 input2.str("a;b;c;d");
 for (std::string line; std::getline(input2, line, ';');)
 std::cout << line << '\n';
}

What is your name? John Q. Public
Hello John Q. Public, nice to meet you.
 
The sum is 28.
 
a
b
c
d

[edit] Defect reports

The following behavior-changing defect reports were applied retroactively to previously published C++ standards.

[edit] See also

• In other languages

• Deutsch
• Español
• Français
• Italiano
• 日本語
• Português
• Русский
• 中文