clearing the buffer

at least I think it is called "clearing the buffer"...
so, this is a menu driven program. If the first option is chosen, you can input a number and it will store the number in a string. Then a "for" loop reads each character from that string and displays each character. After this is done the menu comes up again and you can repeat that over and over. When the menu comes up, you can also choose a second option. This option reads from an external file. It reads & displays each line to the end. When it is done, the menu comes up ready to do the next command. Here is the problem: If I select the second option again from the menu, it won't re-read the same file starting from the top. It just re-displays the last thing stored in memory.
Is it possible to be able to re-read that same file over and over using the menu?
The external file I used has three lines of numbers (shown below).

Code:

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

#define inFile "file.txt"

int main ()
{

int menuNumber;
int next;
ifstream inStream;
string number;
char ch1;

do
{
    cout << "Enter 1 to type in a number" << endl;
    cout << "Enter 2 to get number list from an external file" << endl;

        next = 0;
        cin >> menuNumber;

        switch (menuNumber)
        {
        case 1:
                       
            cout << "Type in number: ";
            cin >> number;      // option to read in string if typed in
            break;

        case 2:
                       
            inStream.open(inFile);
            inStream >> number;  // option to read in first string from batch file
            break;
        }

        if(menuNumber == 1)
        cin.ignore(100, '\n');

while(next != 1)
{
    for(int i=0;i<(number.length());i++)
        {
    number.at(i);      //This "for" loop reads every character from string "number"
        ch1 = number.at(i);
        cout << ch1;
        }

        cout << endl;

        if (menuNumber == 2) 
    inStream >> number;  //if reading from batch file, it reads the next line
        else if (menuNumber == 1)
        next = 1;   

        if((menuNumber==2)&&(inStream.eof()))
        {
                cout << endl;
                next = 1;
        }
}

cout << endl;

if (menuNumber == 2)
inStream.close();

}while(1!=2);

}

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here is what my external file / batch file from notepad contains:

Code:

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1142
6851
6981

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if you know your batch file always contains 4 digit numbers why dont you just use an int array to store them, int number[4].

its just the sample here that contains 4 characters on each line. The lengths are 4 & 6 digits long

You probably need to call inStream.clear() to clear the eofbit and/or failbit before reading from the same ifstream variable again. I'd do that just after closing it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Brian_Jones

Code:

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while(1!=2);

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will make sure that your external do-while loop keeps iterating.

If you want to re-read your file, then I did it this way using seekg() and clear()

Code:

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#include<iostream>
#include<fstream>
const std::string FILE_NAME = "in1.txt";
int main() {
    std::ifstream infile(FILE_NAME.c_str());
    if (infile.is_open()) {
        std::cout << "File opened : " << FILE_NAME;
        std::string yes_no = "Y";
        do {


          std::string temp;
          while (infile >> temp) {
              std::cout << "Read" << temp << std::endl;
          }
          infile.clear(); //Clear flags
          infile.seekg(0, std::ios::beg); //Reset to beginning

          std::cout << "Read again :(Y/N)";
          std::cin >> yes_no;
        }
        while (yes_no == "Y");
        infile.close();
    }
    else {
        std::cout << "File not found ";
    }

    return 0;
}

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You can convert the value(temp in my case) to an int using stringstream

it's working good now, Thank you both!