C++ String array sorting

Question

I am having so much trouble trying to figure out the sort function from the C++ library and trying to sort this array of strings from a-z , help please!!

I was told to use this but I cant figure out what I am doing wrong.

// std::sort(stringarray.begin(), stringarray.end());

---

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <algorithm>
using namespace std;

int main()
{
  int z = 0;
  string name[] = {"john", "bobby", "dear", 
                   "test1", "catherine", "nomi", 
                   "shinta", "martin", "abe", 
                   "may", "zeno", "zack", "angeal", "gabby"};

  sort(name[0],name[z]);

  for(int y = 0; y < z; y++)
  {
    cout << name[z] << endl;
  }
  return 0;
}

Answer 1

The algorithms use iterator to the beginning and past the end of the sequence. That is, you want to call std::sort() something like this:

std::sort(std::begin(name), std::end(name)); 

In case you don't use C++11 and you don't have std::begin() and std::end(), they are easy to define yourself (obviously not in namespace std):

template <typename T, std::size_t Size> T* begin(T (&array)[Size]) {     return array; } template <typename T, std::size_t Size> T* end(T (&array)[Size]) {     return array + Size; } 

Answer 2

int z = sizeof(name)/sizeof(name[0]); //Get the array size

sort(name,name+z); //Use the start and end like this

for(int y = 0; y < z; y++){
    cout << name[y] << endl;
}

Edit :

Considering all "proper" naming conventions (as per comments) :

int N = sizeof(name)/sizeof(name[0]); //Get the array size

sort(name,name+N); //Use the start and end like this

for(int i = 0; i < N; i++){
    cout << name[i] << endl;
}

Note: Dietmar Kühl's answer is best in all respect, std::begin() & std::end() should be used for std::sort like functions with C++11, else they can be defined.

Answer 3

Example using std::vector

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <algorithm>
#include <vector>

int main()
{
    /// Initilaize vector using intitializer list ( requires C++11 )
    std::vector<std::string> names = {"john", "bobby", "dear", "test1", "catherine", "nomi", "shinta", "martin", "abe", "may", "zeno", "zack", "angeal", "gabby"};

    // Sort names using std::sort
    std::sort(names.begin(), names.end() );

    // Print using range-based and const auto& for ( both requires C++11 )
    for(const auto& currentName : names)
    {
        std::cout << currentName << std::endl;
    }

    //... or by using your orignal for loop ( vector support [] the same way as plain arrays )
    for(int y = 0; y < names.size(); y++)
    {
       std:: cout << names[y] << std::endl; // you were outputting name[z], but only increasing y, thereby only outputting element z ( 14 )
    }
    return 0;

}

http://ideone.com/Q9Ew2l

This completely avoids using plain arrays, and lets you use the std::sort function. You might need to update you compiler to use the = {...} You can instead add them by using vector.push_back("name")