Thread: reading a file...

Howdy. Just got serious about learning C++ so i decided the best way to learn would be through practice. So i'm making a progam that takes the tutorials from the home page (cprogramming.com) and displays them when you request them.

my code:

//Program is for personal use only. Lessons property of cprogramming.com.

#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>


using namespace std;

int main()
{
char fileName [80];
char buffer [10000];

int page;

cout<<"1.Lessons: \n";
cout<<"2.Intro to C++ \n";
cout<<"3.If statements \n";
cout<<"4.Loops \n";
cout<<"5.Functions \n";
cout<<"6.Switch case \n";
cout<<"7.Pointers \n";
cout<<"8.Structures \n";
cout<<"9.Arrays \n";
cout<<"10.Strings \n";
cout<<"11.File I/O \n";
cout<<"12.Typecasting \n";
cout<<"13.classes \n";
cout<<"14.Inline functions \n";
cout<<"15.Command line arguments \n";
cout<<"16.Linked Lists \n";
cout<<"17.Recursion \n";
cout<<"18.Variable argument lists \n";
cout<<"19.Binary Trees \n";
cout<<"20.Inheritance \n\n";

cout<<"Please enter lesson number \n";
cin>> fileName; //filename is also used as lesson number
ifstream fin(fileName);
if (fin)
{
cout<<"Current File Contents:\n";
char ch;
while (fin.get(ch))
cout<<ch;
cout<<"\n***End of File contents.***\n";
}
fin.close();
}

I have it working to display the file, but it's a .txt file and i need to enter .txt everytime. Is there a way so i can just do the filename without .txt...say add .txt in the code somewhere? Hopefully you guys understand what i'm getting at. Thanks.

I'd suggest using the string class, it is easier than C style null terminated character arrays.

If you use the string class, you could do this:

Code:

#include <string>
//...
string filename;
cin >> filename;
filename += ".txt";
ifstream fin(filename.c_str());

If you want to use the C style strings, then do this

Code:

#include <cstring>
//...
char fileName [80];
//...
cin >> filename;
strcat(filename, ".txt");
ifstream fin(filename);

Also, welcome. Please use code tags and read the sticky posts and announcements at the top of the board.

thanks, i'll try to use this.

What i know in C++ is very limited. My original thought was to to use if statements, but figured the code would be chaotic. Took me a while to figure it out the way i did it...still not sure if i could do it again

I'll play around with it. Thanks.

Notice that all I'm doing is appending the string ".txt" to the end of the string inputted by the user. If the user types "17", then the filename will be "17.txt" after the extension is appended. If the user types "HelloWorld", then the string will be "HelloWorld.txt". If the user types "5.txt", then the string will be "5.txt.txt". If the user types "Lesson 1", then the string will be "Lesson.txt", and so on and so forth.