Reading and cleaning text file to string

**überfuzz** · 03-20-2012

I have a function in a program that reads a text file into a string. My problem is that later processes needs the string to be clean. In the sense that there's no white spaces, break rows etc. If someone could help me with this it would make my day. :-)

The function:

Code:

string file2String(const string &fileName)
{
    ifstream ifs(fileName.c_str(), ios::in | ios::binary | ios::ate);
    if(!ifs)
    {
        cerr << "Error : File could not be opened." << endl;
        exit(1);
    }

    ifstream::pos_type fileSize = ifs.tellg();
    ifs.seekg(0, ios::beg);
    vector<char> bytes(fileSize);
    ifs.read(&bytes[0], fileSize);

    return string(&bytes[0], fileSize);
}

Cheers!

**laserlight** · 03-20-2012

Originally Posted by überfuzz

My problem is that later processes needs the string to be clean. In the sense that there's no white spaces, break rows etc.

That's easy: just return an empty string. Clean as can be!

Anyway, there are two general approaches I can think of:
1. White list the "clean" characters. Remove everything else from the string.
2. Black list the "unclean" characters. Remove them.

**überfuzz** · 03-21-2012

Is it possible to do that in the function I have at the moment..?

EDIT
This post was somewhat vague... I do this to clean strings from <br> used in a program, of which a part is posted in the first post.

Code:

    string str;
    str = file2String("file.fa");
    str.erase(std::remove(str.begin(), str.end(), '\n'), str.end());

However, this reqiures jet an other traversation of the string. If it's possible I like to do the cleaning in the same process as the reading.

**laserlight** · 03-21-2012

Yes.

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