Outputing cin data to a file?

[kamitsuna]

If i have a program that collects a series of data from a user through cin commands, is it possible to take the product of those inputs and save them to say...a text file to be called upon later if needed.

For example. My program allows a user to create a character sheet. I would like that character sheet to be called up later when needed.

Thanx in advance!

[Salem]

IOstream Library - C++ Reference
Create an output fstream, and use it like you would for cout

[kamitsuna]

hehehe, well im extremely new to c++ , hell extremely new to programming at all. I had a feeling that was going to be a bit beyond what i can understand quite yet.

Thank you very much for the link, i will read over it carefully. However, i tend to learn by better by seeing something, replicating it, then breaking/fixing it.

Any chance anyone can give me a very simple bit of code that might utilize file input/output stream. It would help me greatly.

Like i said, I will read over the information on the link very carefully as well. I'll do my best to sort it out myself.

Thanx!

[Salem]

cout << "This is a line" << endl;

vs.

fout << "This is a line" << endl;


It's that simple, if you just open a file.

If you can't read some documentation and at least TRY this simple exercise, then there is no future for you as a programmer.

[kamitsuna]

Like i said, i am reading the documentation but that my learning comes from seeing it in action and being able to work with it.

I'm not quite sure what to do with the fout command you posted. From what you said I'd need to create an output fstream first then use fout to output to the stream?
so something like this?

#include "stdafx.h"
#include <iostream>
#include <ctime>
#include <string>
using namespace std;

int main()
{
 fostream fileName
 fout << "Whatever i want sent to the file";
}

[MK27]

I'm not quite sure what to do with the fout command you posted. From what you said I'd need to create an output fstream first then use fout to output to the stream?

I think fout was intended as an example instance of an ofstream object. So

#include <fstream>
using namespace std;

int main () {
	ofstream file("tmp.txt");

	file << "hello world";

	return 0;
}

"file" could have been called "fout".

[kamitsuna]

Thanks a bunch MK27!
So after playing with this a little bit i got it sorted out. Managed to export the data i was looking for to a file. My next question is how can i make the file name dynamic.

ofstream fout(cName);

cName is a cin that is run earlier in the program, I'd like the program to dynamically name the files based on the cName input.

If i do it

ofstream fout("temp.txt");

It outputs the file exactly the way i wanted.
I tried

ofstream fout(cName,".txt");

and of course, i didnt work.

[laserlight]

cName is a cin that is run earlier in the program, I'd like the program to dynamically name the files based on the cName input.

Perhaps you meant to say that cName is a std::string object whose value was read from std::cin earlier in the program? If so, it is easy to do what you want to do:

ofstream fout((cName + ".txt").c_str());

That is, you append ".txt" to cName to get a new string object, then you call the c_str() member function to get a C-style string that is provided to construct fout.

[kamitsuna]

Oh i understand, i was close. Not sure i understand what c_str() is though.
c_str() is what formats the string of fout?

That worked just like i wanted. Thank you laserlight!

[MK27]

I just started with C++ too, but I am pretty sure it is the same as C here insofar as you cannot concatenate a string literal onto a variable "on the fly" like this.

So you need to add ".txt" to the end of cName:

cName.append(".txt");  // C++ string
strcat(cName,".txt"); // C string

in the later case you need to make sure cName has room for the extra elements.

[MK27]

I am pretty sure it is the same as C here insofar as you cannot concatenate a string literal onto a variable "on the fly" like this.

Looks like you can. Nice to learn new things!

If so, it is easy to do what you want to do:

ofstream fout((cName + ".txt").c_str());

[kamitsuna]

so

(cName + ".text")

basically reconstructs the string then

.c_str()

formats it so then when the final code runs it looks like

 ofstream fout (cName.txt);

That sound right?

I'm going to post a new thread about calling for the information i just output to the file.

EDIT: Whats wrong with my forum spacing?!? My left profile box seems to get bigger and bigger!

[MK27]

Oh i understand, i was close. Not sure i understand what c_str() is though.
c_str() is what formats the string of fout?

Hmm, looks like ofstream takes a const char*, not a string.

char fname[]="myfile.txt";   // C-string  ("fname" would be a char*)
string fname="myfile.txt";   // C++ string  ("fname" is not a char*)

But .c_str() is a string.method that converts the C++ string to a C string. So another example:

string fname="myfile.txt";
ofstream(fname.c_str());

Without that, ofstream will throw an error.

[kamitsuna]

I think i understand...sorta