Thread: cin.getline in reading files?

The code below works in writing tool.toolName, tool.quant, and tool.cost into a file when toolName is one word ("hammer", e.g.). But it doesn't work when toolName is more than one word ("power drill", e.g.). I've tried using cin.getline(line, 20), cin.getline(tool.toolName, 20), etc, but can't get it to work. toolName is a char[20]. I could try string, but since this is supposed to be a fixed length record, I don't know how to limit a string length either. Any ideas? Thanks.

Code:

if (tool.recNum == 0)
	{
		cout << "\nEnter tool name, quantity and cost: ";
		cin >> tool.toolName >> tool.quant >> tool.cost;
		tool.recNum = rec;
		toolFile.seekp((rec - 1) * sizeof(toolList));
		toolFile.write((char *)&tool, sizeof(toolList));
	}

The whole function is below. toolName is a field in a struct named toolList.
I've done:

Code:

cin.getline(tool.toolName, 20) >> tool.quant >> tool.cost;
and
cin.getline(tool,toolName, 20);
cin >> tool.quant >> tool.cost;
and (first declaring line as char[20])
cin.getline(line, 20) >> tool.quant >> tool.cost;

but no luck. I could use "/n", but that's the default delimiter, I believe. The whole function is below, followed by the print code, not formatted all the way yet).

Code:

void enterTool(fstream &toolFile)
{
	int rec;
	toolList tool;
	cout << "\nEnter a record number from 1 - 100: ";
	cin >> rec;
	toolFile.seekg((rec - 1) * sizeof(toolList));
	toolFile.read((char *)&tool, sizeof(toolList));
	if (tool.recNum == 0)
	{
		cout << "\nEnter tool name, quantity and cost: ";
		cin >> tool.toolName >> tool.quant >> tool.cost;
		tool.recNum = rec;
		toolFile.seekp((rec - 1) * sizeof(toolList));
		toolFile.write((char *)&tool, sizeof(toolList));
	}
.
.
.  // print code
enterTool(hardware);
	hardware.seekp(0);
	cout << "Record #   Tool Name   Quantity   Cost" << endl;
	cout << "______________________________________" << endl << endl;
	for (int j = 0; j < 10; j++)
	{
		hardware.read((char *)&toolRecord, sizeof(toolList));
		cout << toolRecord.recNum << "          " << toolRecord.toolName << "         " <<
			toolRecord.quant << ' ' << toolRecord.cost << endl;
	}

Thanks for the help, I appreciate it.

That didn't work by itself, but adding two cin.ignore()'s helped:

Code:

if (tool.recNum == 0)
	{
		cout << "\nEnter tool name, quantity and cost: ";
		cin.ignore();
		cin.getline(tool.toolName, 20);
		cin.ignore();
		cin >> tool.quant >> tool.cost;
		tool.recNum = rec;
		toolFile.seekp((rec - 1) * sizeof(toolList));
		toolFile.write((char *)&tool, sizeof(toolList));
	}

Now the two word tool name is read in, but when it prints, the cost is truncated, and the initial values in tool.quant & tool.cost, 0's, are still printed as well. There's probably a simple solution, but we've learned so many different things so fast it's hard to remember them all and keep them straight. The struct used is:

Code:

#ifndef TOOLLIST_H
#define TOOLLIST_H

struct toolList
{
	int recNum;
	char toolName[25];
	int quant;
	double cost;
};

#endif

This is extra credit, so don't have to do it, but I like to figure out what's wrong & why. Sometimes it's tough to know where to start. Like now.

Well, that helps some, but still doesn't work quite right. When the program runs and asks for the user to enter tool name, quantity and cost, it hangs until any other character is entered. It also doesn't seem to overwrite the two zeros in the last two initialized fields; the quantity and cost entered display, but so do the zeros the fields have when initialized. All help is appreciated, thanks. Here's the whole code so far:

Code:

#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <cstdlib>
//#include <iomanip>
using namespace std;

#include "toolList.h"

void initialize(ofstream &);
void enterTool(fstream &);
void printTool(fstream &);

int main()
{
	// Create file and initialize with 100 blank records
	ofstream toolSet("hardware.dat", ios::binary);
	initialize(toolSet);

	// Open file for read/write, check if successful
	fstream hardware("hardware.dat", ios::in | ios::out | ios::binary);
	if (!hardware) 
	{ 
		cerr << "File not opened" << endl;
		exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
	}
	
	enterTool(hardware);	// Enter records in file
	printTool(hardware);	// Print file to screen

	return 0;				// That's all, folks!
}

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

// Initialize 100 blank records
void initialize(ofstream &toolInit)
{
	toolList toolRecord = {0, "tool", 0, 0};	// Blank record

	for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++)
		toolInit.write((char *)&toolRecord, sizeof(toolList));	// Write blank record

	toolInit.close();	// Close file
}

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

// Enter data into records
void enterTool(fstream &toolFile)
{
	int rec;	// Record number to enter
	toolList tool;

	cout << "\nEnter a record number from 1 - 100: ";
	cin >> rec;
	cin.ignore();
	toolFile.seekg((rec - 1) * sizeof(toolList));	// Move to selected record
	toolFile.read((char *)&tool, sizeof(toolList));	// Read selected record
	if (tool.recNum == 0)	// Make sure record is blank
	{
		cout << "\nEnter tool name, quantity and cost: ";
//		cin.ignore();
		cin.getline(tool.toolName, 25);
		cin >> tool.quant >> tool.cost;
		tool.recNum = rec;
		toolFile.seekp((rec - 1) * sizeof(toolList));
		toolFile.write((char *)&tool, sizeof(toolList));
	}
	else	// Record number already has data
		cerr << "\nRecord number " << rec << " in use" << endl;
}

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

// Print file to screen
void printTool(fstream &toolPrint)
{
	toolList toolRecord;
	toolPrint.seekp(0);	// Begin at start of file
	cout << "Record #   Tool Name   Quantity   Cost" << endl;
	cout << "_______________________________________" << endl << endl;
	toolPrint.read((char *)&toolRecord, sizeof(toolList));
	while (!toolPrint.eof())
	{
		if (toolRecord.recNum != 0)
			cout << toolRecord.recNum  << toolRecord.toolName 
				<< toolRecord.quant << toolRecord.cost << endl;
		toolPrint.read((char *)&toolRecord, sizeof(toolList));
	}
}

Don't hate to ask, that was the problem. Thanks. I was trying to get all the input on one line, e. g.
"enter tool name, quantity...", then enter sledge hammer 43 19.99 <enter>.
Do you know of a way to do that? The struct toolList is defined a couple posts ago. I thought of using a string instead of a char[], but don't know how to specify string size, so that it's always the same for random access.
Thanks again.