Thread: reading entire file into a class

I'm needing to make a class to read the entire contents of a file into a class, and then there's a function in the class that returns a char * so that it can be used by cout.

right now I have:

Code:

#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;

class FileString
{
private:
    char buff[2000];

public:
  // If File errors exist place them into the string buffer 
  // which starts with **ERR: 
  // For example, **ERR: Couldn't open file
   FileString (string filename)
   {
       ifstream infile(filename.c_str());
       int fileSize = 0;
       if (!infile)
       {
           strcpy(buff, "**ERR: Could not open file!");
       }
       else
       {
           infile.seekg(0, ios::end);
           fileSize = infile.tellg();
           cout << fileSize << endl;
           for (int i = 0; i < fileSize; i++)
           {
               buff[i] = infile.get();
           }
       }
   }
   ~FileString()
   {
   }

   // A call to value returns the contents of the file. 
   const char * value()
   {
       return buff;
   }
};

int main()
{
    FileString temp("D:\\School\\Semester 3\\CPS271\\File IO Homework last assignment\\main.cpp");
    cout << temp.value();

    cin.get();
    return 0;
}

but I don't know what I'm doing wrong... any tips would be helpful

Code:

infile.seekg(0, ios::end);
fileSize = infile.tellg();
cout << fileSize << endl;
for (int i = 0; i < fileSize; i++)
{
    buff[i ] = infile.get();
}

Where do you think the stream's "get" pointer is when you start to call the get member function. You just set it to be the end of the file stream and then start reading from that point. You need to reset it back to the beginning before you start calling get.

geez, i don't know why i didn't see that. thanks, that helps out