Should switch-statement in C++ be used for checking user character input

Question

I am following C++ Programming language book and came upon code similar to one below:

bool acceptSwitchWithRetry()
{
    int tries = 0;
    while (tries < 4) {
        cout << "Do you want to proceed?" << endl;

        char answer = 0;
        cin >> answer;
        switch (answer) {
        case 'n':
            return false;
        case 'N':
            return false;
        case 'y':
            return true;
        case 'Y':
            return true;
        default:
            cout << "I didn't understand that please specify one of following 'n','N','y','Y'" << endl;
            ++tries;
        }
    }
    cout << "I will take that as no" << endl;
    return false;
}

The code works fine if user enters any single character but if multiple characters get entered ten they remain in cin and on next iteration of the loop it doesn't even ask user to enter a character but instead uses next character in the cin buffer.

When can be done to improve this code?

Thank you in advance.

I tried using string object and if,else statements instead but doesn't use switch-statement.

Answer 1

Generally provided code is totally ok. Of course, you may want to have 'if' statement, but switch will do the thing. The only change I would recommend is the following:

 switch (answer) {
    case 'n':
        [[fallthrough]] (after C++17)
    case 'N':
        return false;
    case 'y':
        [[fallthrough]] (after C++17)
    case 'Y':
        return true;