Take String as Input in C++

Strings are used to store the textual information. Taking a string as input is a very common operation used in almost all fields of programming. In this article, we will look at different ways to take string as input.

The simplest way to take string as the user input is to use cin object. Let's take a look at an example:

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main() {
    string name;
    cout << "Enter your name: ";
    
    // Taking string as input
    cin >> name;
    
    cout << "Entered name: " << name;
    return 0;
}

Output

Enter your name: Tara Singh
Entered Name: Tara

As we can see, only the first name is stored in the string name. It is because of cin. It only takes user input until a space, or a newline is encountered, leading to all the words after the first word get ignored.

The next method provides the solution to this problem.

Using getline()

The getline() function is a specialized function that is used for taking strings as input.

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main() {
    string name;
    cout << "Enter your name: ";
    
    // Taking string as input
    getline(cin, name);
    
    cout << "Entered name: " << name;
    return 0;
}

Output

Enter your name: Tara Singh
Entered Name: Tara Singh

This function will continue taking input until newline character '\n' is encountered.

Using stringstream

The stringstream class can be used to create a stream to and from a string. This allows the input and output operations directly into the string.