strcpy and strcmp, what am I doing wrong?

Question

User should enter a few strings and input space as string when he is done. Code should return longest and shortest word entered.

strcmp always returns -1... what am i doing wrong?

#include <iostream>
#include <cstring>
using namespace std;
int main() {
    char S[100][20];
    int I = 0;
    do {
            cout << "Enter text:" << endl;
            cin.getline(S[I],100);
    } while (I < 19 && strcmp(S[I++],""));
    char Max[100], Min[100];
    strcpy(Max, S[0]);
    strcpy(Min, S[0]);
    for (int J = 1; J < I; J++) {
        if (strcmp(S[J], Max) == 1)
            strcpy(Max, S[J]);
        if (strcmp(S[J], Min) == -1)
            strcpy(Min, S[J]);
    }
    cout << "Max = " << Max << endl;
    cout << "Min = " << Min << endl;
    system("pause");
    return 0;
}

Answer 1

So, a couple of things:

• variables should be lowercase;
• you are defining your array of string with wrong length (should be s[20][100]);
• in your while cycle, you should go 'till i < 20;
• the last string in your array will always be the empty string (hence: s_min will be always empty);
• strcmp compares strings, it doesn't tell you which one is the longest. You should use strlen for that...

Here the working code:

#include <iostream>
#include <cstring>
using namespace std;

int main() {
  char s[20][100];
  int i = 0;
  do {
    cout << "Enter text:" << endl;
    cin.getline(s[i], 100);
  } while (i < 20 && strcmp(s[i++],""));

  char s_max[100], s_min[100];
  strcpy(s_max, s[0]);
  strcpy(s_min, s[0]);
  for (int j = 1; j < i-1; j++) {
    if (strlen(s[j]) > strlen(s_max))
      strcpy(s_max, s[j]);
    if (strlen(s[j]) < strlen(s_min))
      strcpy(s_min, s[j]);
  }

  cout << "Max = " << s_max << endl;
  cout << "Min = " << s_min << endl;
  return 0;
}

Answer 2

Try use char S[20][100]; instead of char S[100][20];

Answer 3

From cplusplus.com:

Returns an integral value indicating the relationship between the strings: A zero value indicates that both strings are equal. A value greater than zero indicates that the first character that does not match has a greater value in str1 than in str2; And a value less than zero indicates the opposite.

It shouldn't be 1 or -1, try testing with >/< 0. Also, test if the strings read from stdio ends up in '\0' and eventually add it(getline should), because strcmp makes use of it.

Also, array size if wrong. Should be char S[20][100].

Answer 4

1. You're declaring your array backwards; it looks like you really want char S[20][100].

2. You need to compare using < 0 and > 0, since strcmp() doesn't guarantee that it will return you a 1 or a -1. From the man page:

   The strcmp() and strncmp() functions return an integer less than, equal to, or greater than zero if s1 (or the first n bytes thereof) is found, respectively, to be less than, to match, or be greater than s2.

Answer 5

You're trying to compare the strings in your code but your question says you want to compare length. Use strlen on a null-terminated strings to compare lengths. Here is the reference. Better yet, if what you're writing is C++ code (as it is tagged), you're already using the standard library, so go ahead and use std::string. This sounds like it should be tagged homework, however, in which case I assume you can't use the std::string class.