opening a file from hard drive

let me revise this. i need help closing the file, not opening it. when i try to run this i get an error message saying it expected a constructor or destructor before the "." token on the line that has inputFile.close(). what does that mean? how do i properly close this file?

Code:

#include <iomanip>
#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <ctype.h>

using namespace std;
bool myIsAlpha( char ch );
bool myIsDigit( char ch );
bool myIsUpper( char ch );
int countPunct = 0,
countAlpha = 0,
countUpper = 0,
countLower = 0,
countChar = 0,
countDigit = 0,
countSpace = 0,
countWhite = 0;
char ch; 

int main()
{
ifstream inputFile;

//Open the input file. If it fails to open, display an error message and
//end the program

inputFile.open( "input.txt" );
if( inputFile.fail() )
{
cout << "input.txt failed to open";
exit( -1 );
}

if(ispunct(ch))
{
countPunct++;
}

else if(myIsAlpha(ch))
{
countAlpha++;
}

else if (myIsDigit(ch))
{
countDigit++;
}
else if (myIsUpper(ch))
{
countUpper++;
}
else if (islower(ch))
{
countLower++;
}
else if (isspace(ch))
{
countWhite++;
}
}

//Close the input file

inputFile.close();

return 0;
}

Is the file in a different directory than the EXE? If it's not in whatever is recognized as the current working directory then you'll need to include the path as well.

Which OS and compiler?

General: If you're using an IDE, make sure you know what the "current directory" is for the executable is. Sometimes it's the project root directory, sometimes it's the executable directory.

Windows: if you've got explorer "hide known file extensions" turned on, the file may be called input.txt.txt and you won't even realise it.

I'm using windows 7 and using quincy 2005 to compile the program. i'm not sure if you're responding to my original question or the revised question. i got the file to open properly, and now i can't get it to close properly, which is what i changed my question to. thanks for the help so far though.

The .txt file is in the same folder as the .exe and .cpp files.

If it was formatted better, you'd see that there is an extra bracket '}' just before the close.

Code:

#include <iomanip>
#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <ctype.h>

using namespace std;
bool myIsAlpha( char ch );
bool myIsDigit( char ch );
bool myIsUpper( char ch );
int countPunct = 0,
countAlpha = 0,
countUpper = 0,
countLower = 0,
countChar = 0,
countDigit = 0,
countSpace = 0,
countWhite = 0;
char ch; 

int main()
{
    ifstream inputFile;

    //Open the input file. If it fails to open, display an error message and
    //end the program

    inputFile.open( "input.txt" );
    if( inputFile.fail() )
    {
        cout << "input.txt failed to open";
        exit( -1 );
    }

    if(ispunct(ch))
    {
        countPunct++;
    }

    else if(myIsAlpha(ch))
    {
        countAlpha++;
    }

    else if (myIsDigit(ch))
    {
        countDigit++;
    }
    else if (myIsUpper(ch))
    {
        countUpper++;
    }
    else if (islower(ch))
    {
        countLower++;
    }
    else if (isspace(ch))
    {
        countWhite++;
    }
}

//Close the input file

inputFile.close();

return 0;
}

Also:

Code:

#include <ctype.h>

prefer <cctype> instead of <ctype.h>

awesome, thanks a lot for the help.