File format

Is there a way to set up a record type for a file, similiar to Cobol's set for a file format?

example

Name Address Phone

Is there a way to set up an object to read it all of the records from a file or do I have to read invidual pieces of the record?

Bman1176

No idea about cobol, but it's easy to
[list=1][*]declare a structure to define the format/type of data you want to store.[*]define an array of that structure to store all your data[*]load/save that array in a single operation[/list=1]

This is the 'C' answer.

Code:

#include <stdio.h>

#define MAX_RECORDS 100

struct foo {
    char    name[30];
    char    address[100];
    char    phone[20];
};
typedef struct foo foo_st;

foo_st  records[MAX_RECORDS] = {
    { "Fred Flintstone", "Bedrock", "1234-5678" },
};

int main ( ) {
    FILE *fp = fopen( "rec.bin", "wb" );
    fwrite( records, sizeof(foo_st), MAX_RECORDS, fp );
    fclose( fp );
    return 0;
}

The "C++" version would use an fstream or an ofstream to write to file and an fstream or ifstream to read from file instead of the FILE *. There are comparable stream member functions to write and read an entire struct to/from file with a single operation, although it may be restricted to use with binary files instead of text files. look up the stream member functions read() and write() in your favorite text or online manual.