Thread: Files

I am trying to read in a previously made file from user input.
I have googled and thumbed through a couple of books and i can see whats wrong. the file is placed in the same location as if i would have made a file from the console. I get cannot open file

Code:

char FileName[20];
ifstream infile;

  
    cout << "Enter the name of the file you want to open: ";
    cin >> FileName;
    
    infile.open(FileName, ios::in);
    infile >> FileName;

    cout << "\file contents: " << FileName;
    
    if(!infile) {
	cout << "cannot open file";
     }

How are you running your program? Inside an IDE?

I am using VS 2005
I would like to ask the user for input file..
what is the working directory?

i also tried

Code:

ifstream infile;
string myfile;

char process[200];

ifstream inputFile;

cout << "enter file name";
cin >> myfile;

//inputFile.open (inputFileName, ios::in);
inputFile.open (myfile.c_str(), ios::in);

if(!inputFile)
 {
  cerr << "Can't open input file " << myfile << endl;
  cin >> reply;
  exit(1);
}

i get cant open file.
I can create a file by specifying and reading it but not user input.
please help!

The possibilities seem to be

1. The file does not exist in the current working directory (which for VS2005 is, IIRC, the base directory for the project if you're running from the IDE) or a full path was not specified.
2. The file name contains spaces, since >> will quite simply not read spaces.

I am not using any spaces in the filename. The file is called scores, and I put the file in all directories of the project just to make sure. I will display the output at the bottom. I realize I have not cloded it yet.

Code:

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

using namespace std;

int _tmain(int argc, _TCHAR* argv[])
{

 char reply;
ifstream infile;
string myfile;

char process[200];

ifstream inputFile;

cout << "enter file name: ";
cin >> myfile;

//inputFile.open (inputFileName, ios::in);
inputFile.open (myfile.c_str(), ios::in);

if(!inputFile)
 {
  cerr << "Can't open input file " << myfile << endl;
  cin >> reply;
  exit(1);
}
while(inputFile)
{

inputFile.getline(process,200);


cout << "Contents of file are:" << process;

}


 cin >> reply;
  return 0;
}

Running the program:

Code:

enter file name: scores
Can't open input file scores

What if i ask them to specify where the file is along with the name?
could they type in c\:scores.txt and have it work if the file is in that directory?