Reading a file

I have a program that has an array of structs. I want to read a file which can look something like this:

Code:

one
two
three four
five

Now i want to read these files into the array of structs but after searching and looking in my book i cant find an example of how this can be done. Below is the code slightly modified.

Code:

void ReadFile() {
     ofstream PetFile;
     PetFile.open ("test.txt");
     if ( !PetFile.good() ) {
        cerr << "An error occured while opening pet data base." << endl;
        exit (1);
     }
     
     int PetIndex = 0;
     while ( !PetFile.eof() ) {
           //getline(PetFile, PetID[PetIndex].Status);
           cout << PetID[PetIndex].Status;
           //system("PAUSE");
           
           ++NumRecords;
           cout << NumRecords;
           ++Index;
           cout << Index;
           //system("PAUSE");
     }
}

i have commented a line out so it will compile, what i have here is my best attempt at getting this to work, i only wish to read one line at a time, then assign it to a variable in the array, im also not sure if i can do this directly or i may need a temporary variable. cheers.

I get this error msg when the getline function is not commented.
47 no matching function for call to `getline(std:fstream&, eStatus&)'

There are a number of mistakes in your code.

1. If you want to read a file then why use ofstream? You should use ifstream (i is for input, you want something to input to your program). When writing you should use output file stream.
2. You say array of structs and you're using text files. So I can conclude that you want to write string to a file and then read it back and add to your structure. so variable Status is char*
first
second
third
...
it is sufficient to use only char buf[BUFFER_SIZE]
I'll show you this on a simple example and you need to figure out how to use this to solve your problem.

Code:

#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
using namespace std;

void write_file()
{
	ofstream out("data.txt");
	out<<"first\n";
	out<<"second\n";
	out<<"third\n";
	out.close();
}

void read_file(char* buffer,int len)
{
	ifstream in("data.txt");
	while(!in.eof())
	{
		in.getline(buffer, len);
		cout<< buffer<<endl;
		// now you can do whatever you like with buffer
	}
}
const int BUFFER_SIZE = 1024; 
int main()
{
	char buffer[BUFFER_SIZE];
	write_file();
	read_file(buffer,sizeof buffer);
}

If you want to write whole structure to a file then you'll need to use binary files and functions read() and write()

And prototype of getline is:

Code:

istream & getline(char *, int, char = '\n');

So you see now why you're getting a compiler error

Thanks for your detailed reply, everything is running smoooth

Tsk Tsk:
http://faq.cprogramming.com/cgi-bin/...&id=1043284351

Originally Posted by prog-bman

Tsk Tsk:
http://faq.cprogramming.com/cgi-bin/...&id=1043284351

I didn't realize that what is said for feof() in C can be applied to C++ method eof().
My logic was:

When a cin operation reaches the end of a file, it sets the eofbit
and eof() method returns true if eofbit is set.
Can you explain in more detail why it si bad to use eof() also?

http://www.parashift.com/c++-faq-lit....html#faq-15.5

Thanks
so correct solution is:

Code:

while(in.getline(buffer, len))
	{
		cout<< buffer<<endl;
		// now you can do whatever you like
	}

Makes a little more sence, ill have do to some more readying, thanks for clarifying that for me. When you posted that FAQ i was like, huh? Thanks again