problems with getline in a while loop

My program is suposed to input infromation from two files than calculate the taxes, and print out the info on the screen. The problem is when I try to input information from one of my files it will run through the while loop and take in the getline, but it won't do it again, and again like it's supposed to. It just keeps cycling the loop, without running the getline.



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Code:

#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <string>

using namespace std;
int main()
{
	string customerf = " ", customerl = " ", state = " ", statetax = " ";
	int times;
	double amount, paid, rate, total = 0;

blah... 
blah...
blah...

	
	getline(instatetax, statetax, '#');
	instatetax >> rate;

		while (statetax != state)
		{
			getline(instatetax, statetax, '#');
			instatetax >> rate;
		}

blah...
blah...
blah...


Input file looks like

AL#.056
AK#.095
AZ#.O625
AR#.045
CA#.08
CO#.0725
CT#.0775
DE#.O7
FL#.0725
GA#.055
HI#.0875
ID#.06
IL#.065

>It just keeps cycling the loop, without running the getline.
That sounds like your loop condition isn't testing the right thing. Try printing out statetax with each iteration and see if it takes the line break with it. I'll bet you that it does, and state doesn't have a newline in the string, and your test is failing.

Code:

while (statetax != state)
{
  getline(instatetax, statetax, '#');
  cout << '|' << statetax << "|\n";
  instatetax >> rate;
}

By the way, because the loop doesn't take into account end-of-file or stream errors, if the test fails, you'll loop forever. Aren't iostreams fun?

Cheers!

If i use that code it continually prints out " AZ "
Which is the same thing I got when I used the "step into debugger"
If the entire code is needed I can post it.
But to my knowledge everything else is fine.

There is an 'O' (capital 'o') in your input data after AZ. There are actually several in that input data. If that is not a typo, then it is what is causing your problem, because you are trying to read in a double, but .O is not a number. That puts the stream into a fail state and you never read in anything else.