[vease1999]

All I'm trying to do is limit user input to a single character and output a message error if they enter more. Right now, I have an error that spits out if they enter an incorrect response (not one of the designated options), but if they enter more than one character (let's say 20, and one of the 20 is a valid option), it will take the valid option and move to the next question. I'm pretty sure that 'cin' is not the right way to go about this, but i'm not sure which route to take. Here's an example of my trouble:

int main()
{
    char answer;
    double correct = 0;
    double incorrect = 0;
    const int TOTAL = 6;
    double grade;
    
    cout << "1. Who was the first president of the U.S. " << endl;
    cout << endl;
    cout << "(A). Thomas Jefferson" << endl;
    cout << "(B)/>. Andrew Jackson" << endl;
    cout << "(C). George Washington" << endl;
    cout << "(D). George Bush" << endl;
    cout << "(E). Bill Clinton" << endl;
    cout << "(F). Chester A. Arthur" << endl;
    cin >> answer;
    answer = toupper(answer);
    
    
    
    while (answer != 'A' & answer != 'B' & answer != 'C' & answer != 'D' & answer != 'E' & answer != 'F'){
          cout << "Please enter a valid answer. " << endl;
          cin >> answer;
          answer = toupper(answer);
          }
    if (answer == 'C'){
               correct++;
               }
               else{
               incorrect++;
               }

Also, if you see anything else that I could do to make the code more efficient, that would appreciated also. Thanks for the help.

[sarmanu]

I'd go by accepting a std::string instead of a char, as input:

std::string answer;
std::cin >> answer;

if (answer.length() != 1)
{
   // answer holds more than one character, wrong input then.
   // handle error as you wish
}
else
{
   // answer holds only one character, held in answer[0]
   char ans = answer[0];
   // check if ans is A, B, or whatever ...
}

Hope you get it.

[Keerigan]

if you make answer a char, then use

 cin.get(answer) 

answer will equal the first character that is entered.

For efficiency, use a switch statement

switch(answer)
{
case('a'):
    // enter code
    // enter code
    break;
}

[vease1999]

Thanks for the response. The cin.get worked. I did consider the switch statement before I started, but just never followed through with it. Thanks.