Thread: Help filling a structure with data from a file.

Hello again. I'm having trouble with reading a file containing several different types of data(all part of a structure).
This is the contents of my .txt file

Code:

253.99,4478,Video Card,1
88.99,7789,Motherboard,3
154.99,4753,CPU,2

and this is my code

Code:

     Info p[MAX_NUM_PURCHASES];  
     
     fstream inDataFile;
     inDataFile.open(("C:\\" + yearMonth + ".txt").c_str(), ios::in);
     int numPrint = 0;
     for(int i = 0; i < 5; i++)
     {
         while(!inDataFile.eof())
         {
              p[i].price = inDataFile.get();
              p[i].serialNum = inDataFile.get();
              p[i].descript = inDataFile.get();
              p[i].order = inDataFile.get();
         }//End while not end of file.
         numPrint++;
     }//!End of for loop

I've tried several differen't ways of getting the data, but none of them seem to work for me. I want each part of the structure to be filled with the data until there's a comma(","). After the comma it moves on to the next part of the structure. When there's a new line, it moves to the next structure in the array.
Does anybody have any ideas for this?

get() will only read a single character. You could use getline with ',' as the delimiter for the first three items, then getline with '\n' as the delimiter for the last one. You could also read the entire line into a string and then use a stringstream to parse the line based on the commas.

If price is a double (or float) then you'll need to read it in using something other than getline, or convert it afterwards.

Also, don't use eof() to control your loop. Use the return value of your first read from cin (either getline or operator>>), which will be false if the read failed for any reason, including end of file.

Thanks for the reply Daved. I thought I had posted this last night, but apparently it didn't get sent through. I changed up my code. I did some research first, and found the delimiter stuff and I'm pretty sure I understand how it works. It compiles just fine, and the program runs up until the point when I want to read the files, then it crashes(windows has an error and wants me to send a report).

Code:

     Info p[MAX_NUM_PURCHASES];  
     
     fstream inDataFile;
     inDataFile.open(("C:\\" + yearMonth + ".txt").c_str(), ios::in);
     int numPrint = 0;
     char delimiter;
     string s;
     for(int i = 0; i < 5; i++)
     {    
         while(getline(inDataFile, s))
         {
              if(s != "")
              {              
                  getline(inDataFile, s, delimiter = ',');
                  p[i].price = s;
                  getline(inDataFile, s, delimiter = ',');
                  p[i].serialNum = s;
                  getline(inDataFile, s, delimiter = ',');
                  p[i].descript = s;
                  getline(inDataFile, s, delimiter = '\n');
                  istringstream stream1(s);
                  int h;
                  stream1 >> h;
                  p[i].order = h;
              }//!End if getline does not result in nothing.
         }//!End while not end of file.
         numPrint++;
     }//!End of for loop

I don't get it. Why would this cause such an error?

Originally Posted by dwks

You realize that this is trying to read the whole file five times? The while(getline()) loop reads the whole file. If you really want to read the whole file five times, then rewind the file at the end of the for loop; otherwise, get rid of the while loop and put an if in (to read 5 lines) or the for loop (to read all lines).

Correct you are! I tried taking out the for loop, but the error was still there. So then I kept the for loop and got rid of the while loop. Now there's no error. But, it doesn't put the data into the array like it should. Is there something else wrong with the code?

Then, I just realized this before posting my code. If I take out the while loop then string s holds no value. so s == "". So it doesn't go through the reading file in the if section. When I set s to "p", it gives me the error again. So, it's gotta be an error there. Any ideas?
Thanks!

Here's a solution, which works with what you posted up as a test file:

Code:

// Your struct
struct Info
{
	double price;
	int serialNum;
	std::string descript;
	int order;
};

// Templated type-cast function
template <typename T, typename U>
T lexical_cast ( U src )
{
	std::stringstream s;
	T dst;

	if ( !( s << src ) || !( s >> dst ) )
	throw std::bad_cast ( "Invalid conversion" );

	return dst;
}


int main ( void )
{
	std::ifstream in ( "thing.txt" );

	if ( !in ) 
	{
		in.close();

		return 1;
	}

	std::string temp;
	Info info;

	while ( getline( in, temp, ',' ) )
	{
		info.price = lexical_cast< double, std::string > ( temp );
		std::cout<< '\n' << "Price: " << info.price;

		getline( in, temp, ',' );
		info.serialNum = lexical_cast< int, std::string > ( temp );
		std::cout<< '\n' << "Serial: " << info.serialNum;

		getline( in, temp, ',' );
		info.descript = temp;
		std::cout<< '\n' << "Description: " << info.descript;

		getline( in, temp, '\n' );
		info.order = lexical_cast< int, std::string > ( temp );
		std::cout<< '\n' << "Order #: " << info.order << '\n';
	}

	in.close();

	return 0;
}

The original problem is that the getline inside the while loop should be the first getline that reads in the price. Otherwise, you are ignoring a line in the file. Then, you need to have one loop. That loop needs to go until the first getline (for price) returns false, or until i is equal to MAX_NUM_PURCHASES (so you don't go past the array bounds).

You should also check i against MAX_NUM_PURCHASES just to be safe and break out of the loop if i gets that big.

Note that unless you have or expect empty lines in your file, the check for an empty string s is unnecessary. In fact, s should never be empty in swoopy's version of the code. If you have empty lines in your file, your price value will be messed up because it will read until a comma (including newlines). If there are empty lines at the end of the file, getline should fail breaking out of the while loop.

Also, as an alternative so that you don't have to check for that MAX_NUM, you could always use a <vector>, which is basically a resizeable array, and, guess what? You don't have to define a MAX_NUM for the array size with them! You can just keep on adding to them. There are lots of examples around the forums if you are interested in looking into them, and sure, the board's here if you are interested and get stuck too

Originally Posted by twomers

Also, as an alternative so that you don't have to check for that MAX_NUM, you could always use a <vector>, which is basically a resizeable array, and, guess what? You don't have to define a MAX_NUM for the array size with them! You can just keep on adding to them. There are lots of examples around the forums if you are interested in looking into them, and sure, the board's here if you are interested and get stuck too

Awesome. Thanks for all the replies. I'll be checking them out when I get to a computer with a compiler.

I haven't gotten to vectors or templates yet, but I will be reading up on those soon, to get ahead of the game.
The professor actually made a mistake in class that I had made a few days ago, and Twomers you showed me how to get around it.
He had something like this:

Code:

int i = something;
dataFile.open("C:\\" + i + ".txt", ios::out);

I was the only one who caught the error there(that you can't add an integer to it like that, it's gotta be a string). I got some bonus(I also got some bonus for pointing out that he used void main() on a quiz). So, again, thanks for all the help!

Well, I tried your code swoopy. It compiled just fine, and the logic is all there, but windows is giving me an error each time(not the program, just windows and it's error reports). I'm thinking it's something to do with that machine. I've tried it on mine, but it doesn't even run(just sits and takes up 98% of the cpu power until I end it through task manager).

It should be good enough for an A, and I understand what I was doing wrong before. So there's the two most important things solved(not neccesarily in that order though).
I'm off to start this take home test. And you can bet I'll be using stuff I learned on here! Thanks!

>> not the program, just windows and it's error reports
That usually means a crash in the program.

Actually, I do see a bug in swoopy's code. It tries to read in the price twice. The first getline used as the while control reads in the price, but then getline is then called again immediately. That first getline inside the body of the loop should be removed.