Thread: How do you stor the contents of a textfile in a string?

  1. #1
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    How do you stor the contents of a textfile in a string?

    Here is what i came up with:

    Code:
    #include <fstream>
    #include <iostream>
    
    using namespace std;
    
    int main()
    {
      string str;
      ifstream a_file( "C:\test.txt" );
      a_file>>str;
      cout<<str;
      cin.get();
    }
    it doesnt display anything. I have double and triple checked the test.txt and it does contain text. Could someone please help.

  2. #2
    System Novice siavoshkc's Avatar
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    Try this.

    getline(a_file, str, EOF); {EDIT] change EOF to '\0'.
    Last edited by siavoshkc; 08-24-2006 at 05:32 PM.
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  3. #3
    Frequently Quite Prolix dwks's Avatar
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    Code:
    ifstream a_file( "C:\test.txt" );
    ->
    Code:
    ifstream a_file( "C:\\test.txt" );
    You had a tab in your string, so it was trying to open "C:<tab>est.txt". Remember to escape backslashes when you include them in a string.

    BTW, that program only reads one line.
    dwk

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  4. #4
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    it only reads one line? how do you have it read the entire file?

  5. #5
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    Use a stringstream, then copy the contents of the filestream's rdbuf() into that stringstream. Then get the string from the stringstream. rdbuf and stringstream might be enough to search for an example.

  6. #6
    System Novice siavoshkc's Avatar
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    it only reads one line? how do you have it read the entire file?
    After corrections?
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  7. #7
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    That doesn't compile after corrections.

  8. #8
    Frequently Quite Prolix dwks's Avatar
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    Do you need to have the whole file in memory at once? Or can you read in each line from the file, one at a time, until you've reached the end?
    dwk

    Seek and ye shall find. quaere et invenies.

    "Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it." -- Alan Perlis
    "Testing can only prove the presence of bugs, not their absence." -- Edsger Dijkstra
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  9. #9
    Registered User jlou's Avatar
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    Since I'm here, here:
    Code:
    #include <iostream>
    #include <fstream>
    #include <sstream>
    #include <string>
    
    int main()
    {
        std::ifstream file(__FILE__);
        std::ostringstream oss;
        if ( oss << file.rdbuf() )
        {
            std::cout << oss.str();
        }
    }

  10. #10
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    When I changed it it compiled.
    @jilou- Thanks, but could you explain it?

  11. #11
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    This does not store the file in a single string though, correct?

  12. #12
    Registered User Tonto's Avatar
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    There could be NULL's in a file and it could not be the EOF. I don't know how reliable this is, but making EOF a char and passing it as a delimiter to std::getline seems to work.

    Code:
    	std::ifstream f("c:\\_audioscrobbler.log");
    	std::string s;
    	std::getline(f, s, char(EOF));
    	std::cout << s;
    That does store the file in a single string actually.

    http://www.cplusplus.com/ref/iostream/ios/rdbuf.html

    And then an overloaded operator << that takes a streambuf

    Code:
    ostream& operator<< (streambuf& sb );

  13. #13
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    I figured out how to use jlou's meathod to store the file into a single string, btu I still dont understand it. Anyone have any recources for help?

  14. #14
    Registered User Tonto's Avatar
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    http://www.cplusplus.com/ref/iostream/stringstream/

    You can write data out to a this stringstream, and it'll be just like writing data to the console except to this string buffer. Kind of analogous to sprintf and printf. So he writes the file to the buffer using operator << (streambuf &), the streambuf to the file being obtained through the call to rdbuf: http://www.cplusplus.com/ref/iostream/ios/rdbuf.html and then he gets the std::string from the stringstream with the call to str http://www.cplusplus.com/ref/iostrea...tream/str.html

  15. #15
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    thanks, it isnt quite as complicated as it looks at first glance.

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