[FIXED] How is "cin>>" different from "cin.get"? OR Is it not?

Issue

I was coding a program for Multiplication Tables... And I used a=cin.get(); and cin>>a; to input the value. I got different results with each. The code is:

#include"pch.h"
#include<iostream>

using namespace std;

int main()

{

float a, b;

cout << "Enter the number:";
a = cin.get();
cout << "The Table for the given number is:" << endl;
for (b = 1; b <= 10; ++b)
{
    cout << a << " * " << b << " = " << a * b << endl;
}

return 0;
}

And the other one is:

#include"pch.h"
#include<iostream>

using namespace std; 

int main()

{  

float a, b;

cout << "Enter the number:";
cin >> a;
cout << "The Table for the given number is:" << endl;
for (b = 1; b <= 10; ++b)
{
    cout << a << " * " << b << " = " << a * b << endl;
}

return 0;
}

The one with cin>>a; worked fine. I once read that cin.get() is also used to get the value of the variable. Does it have some other use instead of this?

Thanks,

Solution

Like many newbies you're a bit confused about types. cin >> a will read from cin into variable a no matter what type a is, so float, int, std::string etc all work with >>. That's a simplification but close enough for now.

a = cin.get() is for reading single characters only, it returns the next character in the input. What's happening in your first program is that a char value from get() is being converted to a float value. Skipping over the details but that's not something that makes a lot of sense, which is why you get the strange results.

Another difference between >> and get() is that >> will skip whitespace but get() will not. So if you want to read a single character irrespective of whether it's whitespace or not then use get() otherwise use >>.

Answered By - john

Answer Checked By - Terry (PHPFixing Volunteer)