Thread: Signs in a file without using binary

What if you feel like knowing how many charecters there are in some file what do you then do. I know that this doens't work since these functions work with binary and if my file isn't a binary file that's crap.

File.seekg(0, ios::end);
Length = File.tellg();
File.seekg(0, ios::beg);

So I've aproached the problem this way because I know for a fact that get isn't working with binary.

Code:

    while (File.good())
    {
      File.get();

      Length++;
    }

But is this the most effecient?

All files are binary. Text files is just a special case of a binary file.

Code:

int GetFileSize(char* FileName)
{
   int Result;
   ifstream File(FileName);

   if(!File.fail())
   {
      File.seekg(0, ios::end);
      Result = File.tellg();
      File.close();
   }
   return Result;
}

** Edited cause of a non functional function **

I know that all files are binary but the result is different when you count binary numbers (0 and 1) you get a higher number then when counting chars...

Not really, unless your size IS in chars. If you get the nuumber of bits in the file, divide by 8 to get the number of chars.

~Inquirer

Correct me if I am wrong but,

If you open a file in text mode, it will cut out some stuff (like \r), and so if you try to check the number of characters in the file,
you will come up short.

Of course the real question is, do you want to know how many characters(i.e. *not* including escape chars) are in the file,
or how big the file actually is (i.e. *including* escape chars) ?

The method I gave you counts the actual size of the file, but as Cobra said, if you only want to count the charactersin a file (which you can see in a text editor), you have to use something else. I believe a loop with get() will work.

Which, as you can see above in the start of the thread, is exactly what I did.

BTW what does '\r' do?