How to detect the end of a sentence

[Maya]

Hello, I am writing a program that frames each word of a given sentence and gives the following output:

| We | are | the | GREATEST | Champions! |
+----+-----+-----+----------+------------+

But I am wondering how to detect the end of the sentence if a '\0' is inserted at the end of each word....
Anyone can help?
Thank you!

[Duthomhas]

Sentences always end with a terminating punctuation mark: one of
. (period aka full stop)
! (exclamation point)
? (question mark)

Hope this helps

[firedraco]

I don't think this would be a problem, but you might also want to look for stuff like:

!? or ?!
...

[guestgulkan]

I think you should also look for a space following the
. (period aka full stop)
! (exclamation point)
? (question mark)


(because you can find a . (period) in an abbreviation like B.Sc or Dr. and anyway there should be a space between one sentence and the next)

EDIT
Then I thought some more about it - what happens if Dr. occurs in the middel of a sentence followed
by a name for example "Look there is Dr. Martin and his son?" - that's confusing.

[Maya]

Here is what I tried to do, but I only got the right output when I added all of '?' , '!' and '.' at the end... Any clue?

#include <iostream>
#include <iomanip>

using namespace std ;

int main ()
{
	char chaine[100] ;
	//sentenceEnd = { '!' ; '?' ; '.' } ;
	int i , j ;
	cout << "=================================================================="
		 << "\n=================================================================="
		 << "\nFRAMEWORDS : frames each word of a user-provided list of words"
		 << "\nInput : list of words"
		 << "\nNote : enter empty line to stop interaction loop"
 		 << "\n=================================================================="
		 << "\n==================================================================\n" ;
	cout << "\n<> Enter list of words : " ;
	cin >> chaine ;
	cout << "+" ;
	for ( i = 0 ; chaine[i] != '!',chaine[i] != '?',chaine[i] != '.' ; i++ )
	{
		if ( chaine == '\0' )
			cout << "+" ;
		else
			cout << "-" ;
	}
	cout << "+\n" ;
	cout << setw (5) << chaine ;
	cout << endl ;
	return 0 ;
}

Thanks in advance :-)

[S6k9GNh0]

Well, I think it depends. By each sentence do you mean new line? If so you can check for \n which signifies the end of a line.

[Maya]

'\n' didn't work.. in fact when a user types a sentence, the "enter" key is taken as a signal to start the next instruction, and not as part of the sentence

[kinley]

Try this.

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

using namespace std;

int main ()
{
char str[] ="We are the GREATEST Champions!";
char *pch;
pch = strtok (str," ");
while (pch != NULL)
{
cout << pch << " | ";
pch = strtok (NULL, " ");
}
return 0;
}

[Maya]

Thanks a lot!
I'm still working on it
:-)

[AR Khan]

I think null character is only inserted at the end of a sentence and a character ' ' is inserted between words.
Use gets(string)(or some other option) to input string where space is not treated as null character. You used cin>>chaine; in which when user enters space it is treated as null character and program stops reading furthur.

[Maya]

Thanks AR Khan for your comment. Actually I'm still in earlier stages and haven't came up with a solution yet. Here's what I've done till now:

#include <iostream>
#include <iomanip>
#include <cstring>

using namespace std ;

int main ()
{
	char chaine[] = "We are the GREATEST Champions!" ;
	char *p , chaineDef[100] ;
	int i ;
	cout << "=================================================================="
		 << "\n=================================================================="
		 << "\nFRAMEWORDS : frames each word of a user-provided list of words"
		 << "\nInput : list of words"
		 << "\nNote : enter empty line to stop interaction loop"
 		 << "\n=================================================================="
		 << "\n==================================================================\n" ;

	//Copy of the contents of chaine inside chaineDef in order to add " " at the beginning
	chaineDef [0] = " " ;
	for ( i = 1 ; chaine[i] != '\0' ; i++ )
		chaineDef [i] = chaine [i-1] ;
	chaineDef [i] = '\0' ;
	
        cout << chaineDef ;
	cout << chaine ;
	

	p = strtok ( chaine , " " ) ;

	while ( p != NULL )
	{
		strcat ( chaineDef , p ) ;
		strcat ( chaineDef , " | " ) ;
		p = strtok ( NULL , " " ) ;
	}
       //I tried to use strcat because I wanted to replace later the letters with '+' 
       //and the spaces with '|'

	cout << chaineDef << endl ;

	return 0 ;
}

This program gives an error on chaineDef [0] = " " ; , and even when I remove it, I still don't get an output on the console

[AR Khan]

Use chaineDef [0] = ' ' ; instead of chaineDef [0] = " " ;.
Working??? Actually " " is treated as string, can not be stored in single variable whereas ' ' is a single character.

[AR Khan]

Try this code, it worked perfectly with my compiler.

#include<iostream>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
      char chaine[100]; 
      cout<<"Enter string:\n";                
      gets(chaine);                        //Reading string from keyboard
                                           //Treating space as ' ' not as '\0'
      cout<<"After framing:\n";
      //Printing upper part of frame
      cout<<"+";
      for(int i=0;chaine[i]!='\0';i++)
      {
              if (chaine[i]==' ')
              cout<<"+";
              else
              cout<<"-";
      }
      cout<<"+"<<endl;
      
      //Printing middle part of frame
      cout<<"|";
      for(int i=0;chaine[i]!='\0';i++)
      {
              if (chaine[i]==' ')
              cout<<"|";
              else
              cout<<chaine[i];
      }
      cout<<"|"<<endl;
      
      //Printing lower part of frame
      cout<<"+";
      for(int i=0;chaine[i]!='\0';i++)
      {
              if (chaine[i]==' ')
              cout<<"+";
              else
              cout<<"-";
      }
      cout<<"+";
      return 0;
}

Note: My programs are often examples of bad C++,but work properly.

[Maya]

Thanks a lot!!
I've been working on it for a whole week and did not even think that it could be written in such a simple way :-)

[Maya]

Here's the final solution :

#include <iostream>
#include <cstdio>

using namespace std ;

int main ()
{
	char chaine[100] ;
	char chaineOut[100] = {0} , line[100] = {0} ;
	int i ;
	cout << "=================================================================="
		 << "\n=================================================================="
		 << "\nFRAMEWORDS : frames each word of a user-provided list of words"
		 << "\nInput : list of words"
		 << "\nNote : enter empty line to stop interaction loop"
 		 << "\n=================================================================="
		 << "\n==================================================================\n" ;

	cout << "\nEnter list of words : " ;
	gets ( chaine ) ;

	chaineOut [0] = '|' ;
	for ( i = 0 ; chaine[i] != '\0' ; i++ )
	{
		if ( chaine[i] == ' ' )
			chaineOut [i+1] = '|' ;
		else
			chaineOut [i+1] = chaine [i] ;
	}
	chaineOut [i+1] = '|' ;
	chaineOut [i+2] = '\0' ;

	line [0] = '+' ;
	for ( i = 0 ; chaine[i] != '\0' ; i++ )
	{
		if ( chaine[i] == ' ' )
			line [i+1] = '+' ;
		else
			line [i+1] = '-' ;
	}
	line [i+1] = '+' ;
	line [i+2] = '\0' ;

	
	cout << endl << line ;
	cout << endl << chaineOut ;
	cout << endl << line ;
	cout << endl << endl ;

	return 0 ;
}

[mackabee]

lol, gets

"hehehe pipe this file to your program"

I just had to say it xD

[firedraco]

Yeah...don't use gets...use getline() since you are using C++:

getline(std::cin, <some std::string>);

[Amon Ra]

What about strlen() function, with that you can easily know where your sentence ends ?

[Maya]

tried to read about the getline function but don't know yet how to use it, i am always getting errors
anyone can help?
thanks!