I have recently started coding in Delphi 7, mainly for school but also for personal entertainment. I have run into a problem I cannot solve. I wanted to make a console application, that asks you to input a couple of strings, such as your name and similar, so that the application may call you by your name later. However, I soon realized that having two "read();" commands for 2 different strings doesn't work for some reason, skipping the read command for the second string every time. Since I can't explain it perfectly, here is the simplest code I could think of that shows the problem:
program stringproblem;
{$APPTYPE CONSOLE}
uses
SysUtils;
var string1,string2:string;
begin
read(string1);
read(string2);
writeln(string1,string2);
readln;
readln;
end.
So the console opens, I get to write the value of string1, I input 'test', for example, but instead of letting me then input the value of string2, it skips that one, and just writes out 'test' in the console.
Why can't I input the values of two strings in an application? Why does writing the value of the first one automatically skip all others?
Instead of Read(string1) you should use Readln(string1). And likewise for the other read, and indeed whenever you wish to consume an entire line.
From the documentation for Read:
Read reads all characters up to, but not including, the next end-of-line marker or until Eof(F) becomes true; it does not skip to the next line after reading.
After the first Read, each subsequent Read sees the end-of-line marker and returns a zero-length string.
Use multiple Readln calls to read successive string values.