Session 5: Working with Text and Strings

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- 5 minutes read - 904 words

Session 5: Working with Text and Strings

Weekday Session 1 hour Phase 1: Programming Foundations

Learn to work with text data, handle multi-word input, and manipulate strings to create sophisticated text-based programs.

🎯 Key Skills You'll Learn:

  • String operations
  • getline() for full text input
  • Text processing
  • String methods

🚀 Session Project:

Initials Extractor

Learning Objectives

  • Understand string operations in C++
  • Learn basic string manipulation
  • Handle multi-word input
  • Practice string concatenation

Warm-up (5 minutes)

Try this: ask a user for their full name using cin >> name. What happens if they enter “John Smith”? Why do you think only “John” gets stored?

New Concept Introduction (20 minutes)

String Basics Revisited

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string firstName = "Alice";
string lastName = "Johnson";

The Problem with cin >>

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string name;
cout << "Enter your full name: ";
cin >> name;  // Only gets first word!

Solution: getline()

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string fullName;
cout << "Enter your full name: ";
getline(cin, fullName);  // Gets entire line, including spaces

String Operations

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string first = "Hello";
string second = "World";

// Concatenation (joining strings)
string combined = first + " " + second;  // "Hello World"

// Getting string length
int length = first.length();  // length = 5

// Accessing individual characters
char firstChar = first[0];    // 'H' (first character is at position 0)
char lastChar = first[4];     // 'o' (last character)

Useful String Methods

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string text = "Hello World";

text.length()        // Returns 11 (number of characters)
text[0]             // Returns 'H' (first character)
text.substr(0, 5)   // Returns "Hello" (substring from position 0, length 5)
text.find("World")  // Returns 6 (position where "World" starts)

Mixing cin >> and getline()

This can cause problems! Here’s the safe way:

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int age;
string name;

cout << "Enter your age: ";
cin >> age;
cin.ignore();  // Important! Clears the leftover newline

cout << "Enter your full name: ";
getline(cin, name);

Hands-on Practice (25 minutes)

Exercise 1: Name Formatter (10 minutes)

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

int main() {
    string firstName, lastName;
    
    cout << "Enter your first name: ";
    cin >> firstName;
    
    cout << "Enter your last name: ";
    cin >> lastName;
    
    string fullName = firstName + " " + lastName;
    
    cout << "Hello, " << fullName << "!" << endl;
    cout << "Your name has " << fullName.length() << " characters." << endl;
    
    return 0;
}

Exercise 2: Sentence Analyzer (15 minutes)

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

int main() {
    string sentence;
    
    cout << "Enter a sentence: ";
    getline(cin, sentence);
    
    cout << "You entered: " << sentence << endl;
    cout << "Number of characters: " << sentence.length() << endl;
    cout << "First character: " << sentence[0] << endl;
    cout << "Last character: " << sentence[sentence.length() - 1] << endl;
    
    return 0;
}

Challenge/Quiz (10 minutes)

Challenge: Initials Extractor Create a program that:

  1. Asks for the user’s full name (first and last name)
  2. Extracts and displays their initials
  3. Counts the total number of characters in their name (excluding spaces)
  4. Displays their name in all capital letters (research: look up toupper() function)

Example:

  • Input: “John Smith”
  • Output:
    • Initials: J.S.
    • Name length (no spaces): 9
    • Uppercase: JOHN SMITH

Validation Prompt

🤖 AI Validation Prompt

Copy this prompt and your code to ChatGPT or Claude for instant feedback:


```
I'm learning C++ and just completed Session 5. Here's my solution to the Initials Extractor challenge:

[PASTE YOUR CODE HERE]

The challenge was: Create a program that extracts initials, counts characters (excluding spaces), and converts names to uppercase.

Please check if my solution:
1. Correctly extracts and displays initials with periods
2. Properly counts characters excluding spaces
3. Uses appropriate string methods
4. Handles full name input correctly (spaces included)
5. Shows the name in uppercase

If there are issues, please explain what's wrong and give me a hint to fix it (don't give me the complete solution).
```

What You Learned

  • ✅ String concatenation with +
  • ✅ Getting full lines of input with getline()
  • ✅ String methods: length(), substr(), find()
  • ✅ Accessing individual characters with []
  • ✅ Mixing cin and getline safely

🎉 Phase 1 Complete!

What You’ve Accomplished

After these 5 sessions, you now understand:

  • ✅ Basic C++ program structure
  • ✅ Input and output with cin and cout
  • ✅ Variables and data types
  • ✅ Arithmetic operations and math
  • ✅ String manipulation and text processing

Phase 1 Final Project (Optional Weekend Challenge)

Mini Text Adventure Setup Create a program that:

  1. Asks for the player’s name and age
  2. Calculates a “power level” based on their age (age * 10 + 50)
  3. Asks for their favorite weapon (string)
  4. Displays a character sheet with all their information

This combines everything you’ve learned in Phase 1!

Ready for Phase 2?

Phase 2 will introduce you to making decisions in your programs with if statements and conditions. You’ll learn how to make your programs smart enough to respond differently based on what the user inputs!

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🎉 Phase Complete!

You can create interactive programs that get user input, perform calculations, and display formatted output!