Thread: Read Strings in from text file and store into array

I'm having difficulty with this. I'm working on a project for a class that is an address book. The user will input some contact information which is stored into an object of a class, that object is then stored into an array. Once the user has finished inputting all their contacts into the program, it saves those contacts to a text file and exits the session. I am trying to read the saved data in from the text file, and store it back into the array. Here is how I save the data:

This is a member function of a class in the project, this class is used to first store data into the array, then sort it into alphabetical order, then search the contacts upon the user's request.

Code:

// This function will contact list to disk
void List::saveList()
{
	ofstream contactDatabase;
	contactDatabase.open("ContactDatabase.txt");
	for (int x=0; x<nextEmptySpot; x++)
	{
		contactList[x].savePerson(contactDatabase);
	}
	contactDatabase.close();
}

That function calls a member function of the second class in my project. The second class asks the user for a contact's information, then stores it into private variables.

Code:

void Person::savePerson(ofstream& contactDatabase)
{
	contactDatabase<<firstName<<endl<<lastName<<endl<<address<<endl<<zip<<endl<<phone<<endl<<email<<endl<<notes<<endl;
}

Now is where I am having trouble, trying to read in the saved data so that it can be searched and sorted with new data that the user might input. This is a global function in the main file.

Code:

void readFile()
{
	List inputData;
	ifstream contactDatabase("ContactDatabase.txt");
	if (contactDatabase.is_open())
	{
		while (contactDatabase.good())
		{
			inputData.inputDataFromFile(contactDatabase);
		}
		contactDatabase.close();
	}
	else
		cout<<"No existing contacts stored on disk\n\n";
}

That function calls a function intended to input data from the file back into the array. I can't seem to get this function correct. This is in our first class, since that is where my array is a private variable.

Code:

void List::inputDataFromFile(ifstream& contactDatabase)
{	 
	string firstName;
	contactDatabase.getline(contactDatabase, firstName);
	contactList[nextEmptySpot] = firstName;
	nextEmptySpot += 1;
}

I'm not sure if you will need to see other parts of the code or not, but this is what i have so far. I appreciate your feedback.

I am getting errors relating to the last function i posted.

error C2664: 'std::basic_istream<_Elem,_Traits> &std::basic_istream<_Elem,_Traits>::getline(_El em *,std::streamsize)' : cannot convert parameter 1 from 'std::ifstream' to 'char *'
and
error C2679: binary '=' : no operator found which takes a right-hand operand of type 'std::string' (or there is no acceptable conversion)

I am unsure of how to fix these.

See the example here

There's not enough info for the second one, but you're trying to assign a string to something that is not a string.

I looked at that page quite a few times before and after posting this. In my case, the string firstName already has data that needs to be associated with it in the text file, and I need to associate that data with the string. I'm not sure of the syntax on how to do this.

You just need

Code:

getline(contactDatabase, firstname);

Not knowing what type of variable contactList is, can't help on the other.