Thread: how to i correct this code to read the file correctly?

This code is reading a file visitors.txt and the file has a list of information like this:

int
Name, enumerated data type, int, int, int, int
name, edt, int, int, int, int
name, edt, int, int, int, int
name, edt, int, int, int, int

etc.

i want to skip the first int, and take in the rest of the values. I think I might've messed up while trying to skip the commas. When I run the program it keeps printing out "didn't pink up the Type of Visitor" in an infinite loop.....ahh! help! Here's the code:

Code:

  char char_ignore[5],char_name[25],char_numType[10], char_numAH[3], char_numAM[3], char_numDurH[3], char_numDurM[3];
  fstream file;
  file.open("visitors.txt");

  if(file.is_open())
  {
    file.getline(char_ignore,5,'\n');
    while(!file.eof())
      {
        file.getline(char_name,25,',');
        file.ignore();
        file.getline(char_numType,10,',');
        file.ignore();
        file.getline(char_numAH,3,',');
        file.ignore();
        file.getline(char_numAM,3,',');
        file.ignore();
        file.getline(char_numDurH,3,',');
        file.ignore();
        file.getline(char_numDurM,3,',');
        file.ignore();

        Visitor temp;
        temp.name = (string)char_name;
        if((string)char_numType == "UNDERGRAD")
          temp.type = UNDERGRAD;
        else if((string)char_numType == "GRAD")
          temp.type = GRAD;
        else if((string)char_numType == "PROF")
          temp.type = PROF;
        else
          cout << "Didn't pick up the Type of Visitor";
        temp.a_hours = (int)char_numAH;
        temp.a_mins = (int)char_numAM;
        temp.d_hours = (int)char_numDurH;
        temp.d_mins = (int)char_numDurM;

        fifo.push(temp);
      }
    file.close();
  }

So, do you know what it does read in? Also, getline discards the delimiter character, so you shouldn't need to discard any commas.

Also, your attempts to cast char arrays to (string) and (int) are valiant, but ultimately hopeless. You can copy C-strings to strings, and you can use atoi or strtol or similar to get ints.

Code:

        if((string)char_numType == "UNDERGRAD")
          temp.type = UNDERGRAD;
        else if((string)char_numType == "GRAD")
          temp.type = GRAD;
        else if((string)char_numType == "PROF")
          temp.type = PROF;
        else
          cout << "Didn't pick up the Type of Visitor";

That doesn't look right to me. Try loosing the (string) and compairing them with strcmp()

Code:

if((string)char_numType == "UNDERGRAD")

It doesn't look right but it works. What would be bad with that?

Originally Posted by carlorfeo

Code:

if((string)char_numType == "UNDERGRAD")

It doesn't look right but it works. What would be bad with that?

It's bad because it doesn't look right. Why not use a normal looking temporary?

Code:

if(string(char_numType) == "UNDERGRAD")