Wrote a number to binary converter program in C++ , is it good?

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Hello, i'm fairly new to C++ (started about 3 or 4 months ago. I posted a previous code but made many changes and haven't came around to posting the new code until now. I always know there will be room for improvement so please judge very aggressively with me as I am always looking for improvements.

Here it is:

C++

#include <iostream>
void recur(int convert)
{
    if(convert == 0) //if input is 0 , return nothing.
    {
            return;
    }
        recur(convert/2); // divide convert by 2, get only a 1 or 0
std::cout<<convert % 2; //write remainder
}


void send(int convert)
{
    while (convert != 0)
    {//while convert is not equal to the value we initialized
    std::cin.ignore();//clears previous input before taking new input
    }
    std::cin>>convert;
recur(convert);//call recursive function to do the conversion for us
}


int main()
{
int convert = 0; //this is to be converted, in the meantime it must be initialized to a value
    while (convert == 0)
    { //this while gives us a loop for a immediate other input
send(0);
std::cout<<""<<std::endl;
    }
}

Posted 26-Sep-14 12:35pm

wohstihs

Updated 26-Sep-14 12:36pm

v2

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Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 26-Sep-14 18:39pm

What does it mean? Number is already "binary". Do you mean to get a binary string representation, like "11001101"? Then return string instead of using std::cout (instead of string output), because it could not be reused.
—SA

Philippe Mori 26-Sep-14 19:08pm

What is the purpose of send function? Or the loop Inside it. How would the loop be exited?

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Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov · Accepted Answer · 2014-09-26T12:50:00

No, not good at all. First of all, it does not return anything, does not even allow the user to put data in a string. Second of all, the implementation is way too inefficient, compared even to the simplest reasonable implementation. Finally, the function could be generic, otherwise how would yo reuse the code for long int, unsigned int, and so on? You could use a C++ template.

So first, you need to have a function profile like (let's forget templates for now).

C++

std::string ToBinary(int value);

or, to use just the null-terminated strings, in C style:

C++

void ToBinary(char* string, int value);

In the second case, the user needs to be held responsible for providing a reference to a string which provides enough room for all the binary digits, according to the size of data.

Finally, learn a recipe for extracting separate bits form data.
First, use binary '<<' and '&' operators. If you need to extract N-th byte, where N is the integer index of the bit, counted from least-significant bit #0 (rightmost) toward a most-significant bit, first get the mask equals to 1 << N. If you then AND this mask with your value, you will get either 0 value or not:

C++

if (value & (1 << N) == 0)
   // the extracted Nth bit is 0
else
   // the extracted Nth bit is 1

(Put real code instead of my comments.)
Using these ideas, please write the whole implementation.

See also:
http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/string/string[^],
http://www.learncpp.com/cpp-tutorial/38-bitwise-operators[^].

—SA

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov · Accepted Answer · 2014-09-26T18:46:00

numbers_game wrote:
And also to go back into topic, when you wrote "void ToBinary(char* string, int value);" is it just a matter of preference to write char* string instead of char *string? And char* string means pointer of a string am I correct? Why would I ever need to use a pointer for in this?

Let's see…

The declarations char *string, char * string and char* string are identical in this content, but if you need to have type along, for example in typedef, it will be char*, which makes thing logical. As the variable or member declaration syntax is "typeName variableName", the meaning of declaration with pointer is (char *) variable. (Brackets are redundant, but I put them to show what's the meaning of the construct.

But this is not so trivial, because it's also possible to write:

C++

char *stringValue, characterValue, *anotherStringValue;

which is equivalent to

C++

char* stringValue;
char characterValue;
char* anotherStringValie;

Can you see the point?

Anyway, I would strongly recommend to read some textbook from the very beginning to the very end, preferably doing exercises from the book as you go.

For online tutorial, I would recommend this one: http://www.learncpp.com[^].

It's also good to read the books by Bjarne Stroustrup, which are not exactly the easiest for understanding, but they can give you ideas on C++ rationale.

—SA

Wrote a number to binary converter program in C++ , is it good?

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