Thread: Problem reading a delimited file into a binary tree

I'm trying to read in a delimited file to my program and insert the contents into a binary tree. Here's what I've got:

Code:

    char *ffirst;
    char *flast;
    char *fcity;
    char *fstate;
    char *fzip;
    fstream inf;
    
    inf.open(data, ios::in);
    while(!inf.eof()) {
         
        inf.getline(ffirst, 15, '|');
        inf.getline(flast, 20, '|');  /// ERROR ON EXECUTE - CRASHES HERE
        inf.getline(fcity, 25, '|');
        inf.getline(fstate, 2, '|');
        inf.getline(fzip, 10, '\n');
        
        system("PAUSE");
        insert(ffirst, flast, fcity, fstate, fzip); // Insert data into b-tree
    }

The program will always crash on me after it reads the first delimited element in the file. I can't find the problem with the code- maybe there's some logic about file I/O that I'm missing here - please help.

I believe you need to use the get function in this case.

You didn't set aside memory to hold the data. Your char* variables are just pointers that don't point to anywhere. Either dynamically allocate memory to hold the data, or create the character arrays on the stack like:

char ffirst[15];
char flast[20];
etc...



On a side note, your eof() check is wrong, you must check eof() after you attempt to read using getline, so you will run through your loop one extra time and insert the last person's data twice.

Could you please explain the "get function"?

You do not need the get function in this case. (see my above post).

Ugh, sorry, I'm on crack today, I can't believe I missed that...

*gauges eyes out*

Disregard my post, I'm really out of it today

i was able to get it working once I stopped using pointers. So, I am still ahveing trouble iwth the eof()q

Originally Posted by neolyn

i was able to get it working once I stopped using pointers. So, I am still ahveing trouble iwth the eof()q

Smart move.

To fix the eof problem, you can put the first getline into the while statement, since the return value of getline is converted to true or false based on whether it was successful or not. You could also put the first getline (or all of them if your data might be bad) into an if statement and break out of the while loop if it returns false:

Code:

if (!inf.getline(ffirst, 15, '|'))
    break;

Yeah - I tried that - not working. lol

Code:

    while(1) {
         
        inf.getline(ffirst, 15, '|');
        inf.getline(flast, 20, '|');
        inf.getline(fcity, 25, '|');
        inf.getline(fstate, 2, '|');
        inf.getline(fzip, 10, '\n');
        
        insert(ffirst, flast, fcity, fstate, fzip); // Insert data into tree

        if(!inf.getline(ffirst, 15, '|')) {
                break;
        }
    }

Do you realize that by simply pasting that code in you are reading the ffirst name twice? The point is that every time you read in a new set of data, it is possible that the last set of data you read in was the last set of data in the file. So the very first thing you attempt to read in when going through the loop again is when you should be checking to see if that read succeeded or not.

See if you can figure it out.

Thanks for your help. I appreciate it.