Thread: Need help with displaying a text file in C++ program...

I'm trying to make a simple DOS C++ text editor. I figured out how to save to the file when you create a new document, now I'm having trouble viewing existing files. The program won't stop looping. (or repeats the last word over and over until the loop finish value is set). I'm pretty sure I need to use pointers and have it fine the '\0' (null byte) or something... Here's a snippet from the load function:

Code:

int loadFile()
{
  char fileNameLoad[12], text[25], a;
  header(); //seperate function just to view colors :D
  
  cout<< "\nEnter file name: "; 
  cin>> fileNameLoad; 
  ifstream viewFile(fileNameLoad); //opens fileNameLoad for viewing
  cout<< "\nContents of file:\n"; 
  while (text != '\0') // ???
  {
    viewFile>> text;
    cout<< text << " ";
  }
  cout<< "\n\nPress any key to return to Main Menu...";
  viewFile.close();
  getch();
  return 0;
}

I'm aware as of now that it only opens and displays files in the same directory that the program is installed into, that doesn't bother me. I need to know how to make it so that the program knows where the EOF is...

Thanks!

while (viewFile >> text) cout << text << ' ';

Thanks a lot!

I just have one more question, (just started programming in C++ not too long ago, reading up on some books from the library) would it be considered ''bad programming'' to put the whole Load and view section of the program into one function? Or should I just load it with the function and display it within the main() function?

You can do it any way you want. You can place it all in main if you would like. But the fxns make it easier to read/split up. For this fxn, the way it is would probably be the quickest. Unless you have a global array. If you are returning an array for instance, that could take up quite a bit of memory. memory v. speed, usually on the programmers mind when designing a program.

on a side note, the way you currently have the loadFile fxn, you do not need it to return an int. you can return void.

also, you do not need text to be an array, nor do you need the char a.

I think, that if you have many actions with reading and writing to a file, than it is better to separate those actions in different functions. But in this case it is not important. Also, if You make a simple menu with switch and many cases, than it is good to put every "case" action in its own function, so it can be easier to read the code and edit it But after all its just a matter of opinion!

2 things I noticed that I'm not sure if they seem that obvious:

I always use ios::binary on my call to create object of fstream whenever I open a file for editing or pretty near anything...
might wanna look into that.

You can insert or delete information at any point in the file you want by moving around it with seekg, tellg, seekp, tellp.

Finally, when you're outputting the information in the file, you can loop it to <objectname>.eof (end of file)


hth,
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