Parsing and tracking unknown variable names

I am going to be parsing a log file from a game to determin how many times a person casted the same spell. I don't know though, how to store data on a thing without first making a variable for it. I have this so far:

Code:

---

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

using namespace std;

inline void loadfile(ifstream& file)
{
    file.open("eqlog_Brahman_povar.txt");
    int attempt = 1;
    while(attempt==1)
    {
        if (!file.is_open())
        {
            string filename;
            cout<<"Please specify the name, and possibly"<<endl
                <<"the path to the EQ log."<<endl;
            getline(cin,filename);
            file.open(filename.c_str());
        }
        if (!file.is_open())
        {
            cout<<"The file does not appear to be there!"<<endl
                <<"If you wish to try again, please press enter 1."<<endl
                <<"Press any other key to exit the program and give up.";
            cin>>attempt;
               
        }
        else
        {
            cout<<"The file is open!";
            attempt = 0;
        }
    }
}

inline void counter(ifstream& file)
{
    int datestamp = 27;
    int count = 0;
    string line;
    while (getline( file , line ))
        {
        int read_pos = line.find("begins",0);
        int spell_pos = line.find("<",0);
        if(read_pos>0 && spell_pos>0)
        {
            string caster = line.substr(datestamp,read_pos-datestamp);
            cout<<"Caster:"<<caster;
            string spell = line.substr(spell_pos+1,line.size()-spell_pos-2);
            cout<<" Spell: "<< spell<<endl;
            count++;
        }
    }
    cout<<"Spells casted: "<<count;
}           

int main()
{
    ifstream file;
    loadfile(file);
    counter(file);
    cin.get();
}

---

I know inline voids aren't most peoples favorite, but that is what I used for this first version, later versions will probably need complete rewrites to make it faster anyway.
~Wraith

you could use std::map that associates a string (spell name) with an int (number of times the spell was cast). I don't know map well enough to tell you how to use it. I'm sure if you searched this message board or goodled around you will find out how to do it.