Data from file (XML, Config, ..) to Object

[WMonk]

Hello!

I've a class:

class Customer
{
public:
	std::string get_name();
	short get_gender();
	int get_id();
	Customer();
private:
	int id;
	short gender;
	std::string name;
};

And some data in a file (customer details).
What is the best way to put this data into objects of Customer? Should I use XML, libconfig, or something else? I only want to read from a file, not to write data back.

Thanks in advance for your help.
Thomas Peter

[Elysia]

Maybe the better question would be - how does the file layout look like? Since you aren't writing to it, I don't know if you are defining the layout either.

[WMonk]

I'm defining the layout too.
So if XML is the best way to do this, I'll create a XML file for my data. And so for other layout types.
And if it matters: I'm using gcc on a Fedora8 box, and use gtkmm in the program.

[Elysia]

Easiest, least portable is binary. Harder, but most portable, XML.

[WMonk]

I want to compile my program on both Linux and Windows, so XML is the best choice here because it's the most portable?
Can someone give me an example to do this? (parse the elements of the XML into objects, and the subelements into the objects variables?)
Thanks!

[Elysia]

Binary is definitely possible. The only problem with binary is that if something is X size on one machine and X + 2 bytes on another machine, then it's not likely it's going to work too well reading that information again.
I like binary, but I wouldn't recommend it. As for XML, it's best to get a parser off the web somewhere. Writing a parser can be complicated, even though XML is very simple to parse (at least if you compare to things like C/C++).

[laserlight]

If you go the binary route, one possibility to consider is SQLite, an embedded database engine. It has been described by its author as an alternative to fopen(), and you will pretty much have a format that can be consistent across Linux, Windows, and possibly Mac OS X, and other operating systems on which SQLite can run.

[WMonk]

SQLite seems good to me, I'll give it a try. Is there a simple C++ wrapper (under GPL) for the C code?
If so, I'd really like
Thanks!

[laserlight]

Is there a simple C++ wrapper (under GPL) for the C code?

I uh, wrote a simple C++ wrapper for SQLite with the main goal of using RAII, but could not figure out how to handle the user defined function feature elegantly... so I have never published it.

That said, there are other (probably better) C++ wrappers that you can try. Some are listed in the SQLite wiki's SQLite Wrappers page.

[WMonk]

Ah, great
SQLite Wrapped seems good for my app, as I read the tutorial. Only problem that I can't get it to work on my Fedora 8 64bit box.
But for now, thanks for your help!