Passing file stream as function parameter

I am writing a programme to open a file, do some reformating of the data and write the result to an output file. Within function main the input file name is deconstructed and used to create the output file name, which is opened as an ofstream. Some header is written to this file, but the bulk of the writing, including a little bit of arithmetical calculation, I want to do in a function which will be periodically called from the main function.

The problem is that I don't know how to pass the name of the output stream to the function. ofstream is declared in main, so its scope is limited to main and it is therefore not available as an object in the output writing function. I have tried adding an extra parameter to the function of type ofstream, but this creates lots of compiler errors in ios_base.h (I am using the Dev C++ compiler).

Grateful for any advice on how to do this.

Can you paste some of what you tried, and indicate what you need to pass around?

Here is the function which I want to use to write to the output file
(line_elements is a structure which is defined globally)

Code:

---

  int  ann_bln_out (line_elements point1, line_elements point2, line_elements point3, \
  ofstream out_file_stream)
  // Point 1 is symbol loc, points 2 and 3 are used to calculate orthogonal offset
{
  // Declare variables for calculation
  float bln_len = map_scale * 0.15/200*1.2;
  float dx, dy, hyp;
  float end_x_coord, end_y_coord;
 
  // Calculation of end coordinates
 
  dx = point3.x_coord - point2.x_coord;
  dy = point3.y_coord - point2.y_coord;
  hyp = sqrt(dx*dx+dy*dy);
  end_x_coord = bln_len * dy/hyp + point1.x_coord;
  end_y_coord = bln_len * dx/hyp + point1.y_coord;
 
 
  // Output to annotation file
  out_file_stream  << "2, 0 " << point1.sp_no << endl \
  << point1.x_coord << "," << point1.y_coord << endl \
  << end_x_coord << "," << end_y_coord << endl;

  return(0);

}

---

Here are the parts of main where the output stream is created and the function is called

Code:

---


  ofstream out_files_ann_bln (out_files_ann_bln);

  // Output first point to annotation file
  ann_bln_out (last_line, last_line, current_line, out_files_ann_bln);

---

(last_line and current_line are variables of type line_elements)

The error this creates in the compiler is:

In copy constructor ` std::basic_ios<char, std::char_traits<char> >::basic_ios(const ` std::ios_base::ios_base(const std::ios_base&)' is private within this context

I'm afraid I don't know enough of C++ to understand this or correct it.

Grateful for your assistance.

Try passing your file stream by reference instead.

Code:

---

int  ann_bln_out (line_elements point1, line_elements point2, line_elements point3, \
  ofstream& out_file_stream)

---

You could try passing the ofstream object by reference.

Code:

---

int  ann_bln_out (line_elements point1, line_elements point2, line_elements point3, ofstream &out_file_stream)

---

A reference to the stream looks like a good bet.

Many thanks for you rhelp.

I would never have worked out this simple correction in a million years of looking at online tutorials...