Thread: File Input and Output with error checking

I am a beginner C++ programmer and I am having a lot of difficulty with this assignment for my class. I am inputing file data from person.dat and outputting to output.dat. I have to have error checking throughout, I am getting errors and I am not sure how to get around the problem. Any help would be great
person.dat file contents:

Horowitz,Jake,1200.24
Flabitz,Bubba,1712.38
Blackwell,Sharon,1872.93
Molerat,Rufus,501.00
Goodall,Jane,1567.43
Sommerset,William,1359.57
Van Helsing,Marcus,1675.21
Welfirth,Bula,1903.83
Poling,Kerri,1243.32
Lee,Aswari Kalim,1839.42
Lisa,Mona,2409.48
Lisbon,Frieda,1543.70
Hatcher,Gary,1220.13

Code:

#pragma once
#if !defined(person_included)
#define person_included
#include <string>
#include <iostream>


class person{
public:
    std::string first_name;
    std::string last_name;
    double monthly_pay;


    person():
    first_name ("john"),
    last_name ("doe"),
    monthly_pay (0.00)
    {}


person(const std::string& init_fn,
      const std::string& init_ln,
      double init_mp
     ):first_name(init_fn),
       last_name(init_ln),
       monthly_pay (init_mp)
    {}


    std::string get_first_name() const {return first_name;}
    std::string get_last_name() const {return last_name;}
    double get_monthly_pay() const {return monthly_pay+50.00;}


    /*friend std::ostream& operator<<(
        std::ostream& j,
        const person& s)
        {
        j << s.last_name <<","<< s.first_name<<","<< s.monthly_pay<<"/n";
        return j;}*/
};
#endif

Code:

#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <string>
#include "person class.h"


int main() {


std::ifstream input("person.dat");
person in;


if (!input) {
std::cerr << "cannot open file" << std::endl;
return 6;
}


for (;;){
try{
if (input.eof()) {throw 1;}


if (!std::getline(input, in.last_name, ',')) {throw 2;}




if (!std::getline(input, in.first_name, ',')) {throw 3;}




input >> in.monthly_pay;


if (!input) {throw 4;}


std::ofstream stream ("output.dat");
stream << in.last_name <<"," << in.first_name << "," << in.monthly_pay<<std::endl;


}catch(int error){
std::cerr <<"an error occured" << error <<std::endl;
}
}
return
0;


}

I thought you had started a similar thread only to disappear and leave others going over your work File input and Output help.

You're right, I did have a similar thread but something came up and I was unable to access the thread for a while. Since then I changed the code some, and am having different problems.

What errors are you getting as you say in the post #1?

I made a slight change to the code, but right now it is exiting with code 0. The output file is only containing one line (the last line of person.dat) and it isn't getting the 50 dollar increase as placed in person class.h.

Code:

#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <string>
#include "person class.h"


int main() {


std::ifstream input("person.dat");
person in;


if (!input) {
std::cerr << "cannot open file" << std::endl;
return 6;
}


for (;;){
try{
if (input.eof()) {break;}


if (!std::getline(input, in.last_name, ',')) {throw 2;}




if (!std::getline(input, in.first_name, ',')) {throw 3;}




input >> in.monthly_pay;


if (!input) {throw 4;}


std::ofstream stream ("output.dat");
stream << in.last_name <<"," << in.first_name << "," << in.monthly_pay<<std::endl;


}catch(int error){
std::cerr <<"an error occured" << error <<std::endl;
}
}
return 0;


}

You see you are opening the file every time you loop and every time you open the contents get overwritten.

Code:

for (;;){
try{
//code ...


std::ofstream stream ("output.dat");
//code ...
return 0;


}

The file should be opened outside the loop so that you use the same file descriptor throughout the program to ensure the correct offset with each loop

so something like this?

Code:

if (!input) {throw 4;}
}catch(int error){
std::cerr <<"an error occured" << error <<std::endl;
}
std::ofstream stream ("output.dat");
stream << in.last_name <<"," << in.first_name << "," << in.monthly_pay<<std::endl;

}
return 0;

When I do this it just prints out the last first name and monthly pay from the person.dat file.

Code:

}catch(int error){
std::cerr <<"an error occured" << error <<std::endl;
}
}
std::ofstream stream ("output.dat");
stream << in.last_name <<"," << in.first_name << "," << in.monthly_pay<<std::endl;
return 0;


}

That's absolutely fantastic thank you, one final question. My person class return of monthly pay isnt properly increasing the pay by 50.00 dollars, what can I do to fix that?

Code:

double get_monthly_pay() const {return monthly_pay+50.00; }

Try getting rid of the const keyword??!

It's still not increasing the pay.

Never mind, I fixed it. Thank you so much for all your help. Sorry I disappeared from that first thread, I had a small crisis at home. I really appreciate the info, I learned a lot.