How to safely read a line from an std::istream?

Solution 1:

You could write your own version of std::getline with a maximum number of characters read parameter, something called getline_n or something.

#include <string>
#include <iostream>

template<typename CharT, typename Traits, typename Alloc>
auto getline_n(std::basic_istream<CharT, Traits>& in, std::basic_string<CharT, Traits, Alloc>& str, std::streamsize n) -> decltype(in) {
    std::ios_base::iostate state = std::ios_base::goodbit;
    bool extracted = false;
    const typename std::basic_istream<CharT, Traits>::sentry s(in, true);
    if(s) {
        try {
            str.erase();
            typename Traits::int_type ch = in.rdbuf()->sgetc();
            for(; ; ch = in.rdbuf()->snextc()) {
                if(Traits::eq_int_type(ch, Traits::eof())) {
                    // eof spotted, quit
                    state |= std::ios_base::eofbit;
                    break;
                }
                else if(str.size() == n) {
                    // maximum number of characters met, quit
                    extracted = true;
                    in.rdbuf()->sbumpc();
                    break;
                }
                else if(str.max_size() <= str.size()) {
                    // string too big
                    state |= std::ios_base::failbit;
                    break;
                }
                else {
                    // character valid
                    str += Traits::to_char_type(ch);
                    extracted = true;
                }
            }
        }
        catch(...) {
            in.setstate(std::ios_base::badbit);
        }
    }

    if(!extracted) {
        state |= std::ios_base::failbit;
    }

    in.setstate(state);
    return in;
}

int main() {
    std::string s;
    getline_n(std::cin, s, 10); // maximum of 10 characters
    std::cout << s << '\n';
}

Might be overkill though.

Solution 2:

There is already such a getline function as a member function of istream, you just need to wrap it for buffer management.

#include <assert.h>
#include <istream>
#include <stddef.h>         // ptrdiff_t
#include <string>           // std::string, std::char_traits

typedef ptrdiff_t Size;

namespace my {
    using std::istream;
    using std::string;
    using std::char_traits;

    istream& getline(
        istream& stream, string& s, Size const buf_size, char const delimiter = '\n'
        )
    {
        s.resize( buf_size );  assert( s.size() > 1 );
        stream.getline( &s[0], buf_size, delimiter );
        if( !stream.fail() )
        {
            Size const n = char_traits<char>::length( &s[0] );
            s.resize( n );      // Downsizing.
        }
        return stream;
    }
}  // namespace my

Solution 3:

Replace std::getline by creating a wrapper around std::istream::getline:

std::istream& my::getline( std::istream& is, std::streamsize n, std::string& str, char delim )
    {
    try
       {
       str.resize(n);
       is.getline(&str[0],n,delim);
       str.resize(is.gcount());
       return is;
       }
    catch(...) { str.resize(0); throw; }
    }

If you want to avoid excessive temporary memory allocations, you could use a loop which grows the allocation as needed (probably doubling in size on each pass). Don't forget that exceptions might or might not be enabled on the istream object.

Here's a version with the more efficient allocation strategy:

std::istream& my::getline( std::istream& is, std::streamsize n, std::string& str, char delim )
    {
    std::streamsize base=0;
    do {
       try
          {
          is.clear();
          std::streamsize chunk=std::min(n-base,std::max(static_cast<std::streamsize>(2),base));
          if ( chunk == 0 ) break;
          str.resize(base+chunk);
          is.getline(&str[base],chunk,delim);
          }
       catch( std::ios_base::failure ) { if ( !is.gcount () ) str.resize(0), throw; }
       base += is.gcount();
       } while ( is.fail() && is.gcount() );
    str.resize(base);
    return is;
    }