trouble opening a text file

Hi, I am having trouble trying to figure out how to open up a text file. I have read the tutorials but can't seem to get it to work properly. I am not doing anything with windows programming at all, strictly the console. Basically what I want to do is have a simple list of commands ex. (1) begin (2) shop (3)help and have it so that when you hit 3, it will open up the text file. Can anyone explain to me how this works or at least point me in the right direction, any help is appreciated. Thanks.

sure.

Code:

---

#include <fstream>
...
string line;

ifstream help_file("help.txt",ios::in);
while (getline(help_file,line))
  cout << line << endl;

---

you'll probably have to tweak that somewhat

Try:

#include<fstream.h>

void main()
{
fstream HelpFile
HelpFile.open("HelpFile.txt", ios :: out); //this opens the file named HelpFile for output
}

This will open the file for use as input; aka read from the file.