Thread: I need to change this program I wrote, from a struct format to a class

Originally Posted by jimblumberg

What makes you think it won't work with a single character?

Jim

Well the file reading logic is incorrect. Because EOF is a condition, not a character. After reading the first byte of a 1 byte file, EOF will be set to true and the main loop will not execute. Also, if the file is empty the file stream will enter a fail state and EOF should return true immediately with the same effect: the loop will not execute.. thus "eating" a character. It would be simpler to use

Code:

while (cin << input) { blah; blah; blah; }

in a C++ program.

I know because coding a reliable input processing system, even as simple as this, is not that straightforward unless you understand the error conditions that can occur while reading from the file.

EDIT:

Ok, say the input file is 1 byte. Then, after executing the code

Code:

char c;
cin << c; // or whatever wierd C++ thing to read a byte from a file LOL

The EOF condition will be set to true. And the main loop will not execute. Also, if the file is empty, the cin << inFile will set the input stream into a fail state, and should also set EOF, and the main loop will not execute either way.

I will note that the cin and cout operators << and >> are highly non-intuitive and confusing because, despite using them hundreds of times in practice, I still know that my usage here is probably incorrect ... due to its non-intuitive nature.

I mean really wouldn't it be

Code:

char c = '\0';
c << cin;

to read a byte?

Or is it

Code:

cin >> c;

Or is there really any sense at all to it.. not really.. just learn the definitions I suppose. I myself would highly prefer something like

Code:

char c = fgetch(stdin);

which, I think, makes its pretty damn clear whats happening there...