Cannot open binary file

I am working through the book C++ Without Fear and just got to the part where binary files are introduced. I created a program using binary files, but it can never successfully open the file. I tried some code straight from the CD that comes with the book and that had the same problem.

This is the line of code used to open the file:

Code:

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fstream fileout(filename, ios::binary | ios::in | ios::out);

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Any idea what is going on?

The only thing I can think of is that the file needs to already exist, but that is not true of text files, so I doubt that is the problem. If it is the problem, how would I create a binary file?

Thanks!

Below is my code, which is very similar to the code in the book.

Code:

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#include <iostream>
#include <string.h>
#include <fstream>

using namespace std;

int get_int(int def);

main(){
      int recsize, recnum;
      char model[20], make[20], year[5];
      int miles;
      char filename[81];
     
      recsize = sizeof(model) + sizeof(make) + sizeof(year) + sizeof(int);
     
      cout << "Enter filename and press ENTER: ";
      cin.getline(filename, 80);
     
      fstream fileout(filename, ios::binary | ios::in | ios::out);
     
      if(! fileout){
            cout << "Error opening file.";
            getchar();
            return -1;
            }
           
      while(true){
                  cout << "Enter record to write to: ";
                  recnum = get_int(0);
                 
                  fileout.seekp(recnum * recsize);
                 
                  fileout.write(model, 20);
                  fileout.write(make, 20);
                  fileout.write(year, 5);
                  fileout.write(reinterpret_cast<char*>(&miles), sizeof(int));
                  }
      fileout.close();
      getchar();
      return 0;
      }
                 
int get_int(int def){
    char inpt_str[81];
    int inpt;
   
    cin.getline(inpt_str, 80);
    if(strlen(inpt_str) == 0){
                        inpt = def;
                        }else{
                              inpt = atoi(inpt_str);
                              }
   
    return inpt;
}

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Try printing the filename to ensure that it's got the content you expect.

What compiler are you using? What file are you trying to open?

--
Mats

And purely conceptually, why do you call an fstream "fileout" and then open the file for writing and reading?

Fails for me too if the file does not exist, and if I create the file ("touch" on unix), it opens fine.

I suspect it's because you are opening for both input and output, and the file not existing for the ios::in trumps the file not existing for the ios::out.

Seems obvious, but I haven't found this stated in any doc anywhere yet.

Todd

Thank you! Making the file in advanced solved the problem. I used notepad and choose encoding Unicode, instead of ASCII.

That doesn't matter, if the file is empty.