Reading in text file into an array, white spaces...

I'm obviously a newbie with this whole programming thing (hence my name "error," perhaps should be "errors" lol), so I have a simple question. It is my understanding that when you want to read data into an array from a text file there has to be white space between each character, is there a way to get around this and if so how? You cannot fill an index with a white space can you?

I want to be able to access each character from a series of sentences individually, that is make it so each character from that sentence is in its own index in an array. I don't want to have to put white space between each character in the sentences you know.

http://cboard.cprogramming.com/showt...ay+white+space

http://cboard.cprogramming.com/searc...der=descending

Post an example text file and post what you want to store in a container.

Kuphryn

Quote:

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Originally posted by kuphryn
Post an example text file and post what you want to store in a container.

Kuphryn

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Alright say I wanted the first paragraph in my post above with each character from those sentences in an individual index of an array without have to make a white space between each character.

The sentences exactly in the text file that I believe will work to read each one into an index in an array starting with the "I" (index 0 i.e. [0]) and ending with the "." (index length-1 i.e. [arrayname.length()-1) because it is my understanding the putting a white space between each character (piece of data) will allow each character its own index in the array (I want each character to become an element of an array):

I ' m o b v i o u s l y a n e w b i e w i t h t h i s w h o l e p r o g r a m m i n g t h i n g ( h e n c e m y n a m e " e r r o r , " p e r h a p s s h o u l d b e " e r r o r s " l o l ) , s o I h a v e a s i m p l e q u e s t i o n . I t i s m y u n d e r s t a n d i n g t h a t w h e n y o u w a n t t o r e a d d a t a i n t o a n a r r a y f r o m a t e x t f i l e t h e r e h a s t o b e w h i t e s p a c e b e t w e e n e a c h c h a r a c t e r , i s t h e r e a w a y t o g e t a r o u n d t h i s a n d i f s o h o w ? Y o u c a n n o t f i l l a n i n d e x w i t h a w h i t e s p a c e c a n y o u ?


The sentences exactly in the text file the way I want them read into an array:

I'm obviously a newbie with this whole programming thing (hence my name "error," perhaps should be "errors" lol), so I have a simple question. It is my understanding that when you want to read data into an array from a text file there has to be white space between each character, is there a way to get around this and if so how? You cannot fill an index with a white space can you?

I will repesent each element with [ ], now those sentences with each character in an index something like:

[I]['][m][ ][o][b][v][i][o][u][s][l][y][ ][a][ ][n][e][w][b][i][e][ ][w][i][t][h][ ][t][h][i][s][ ][w][h][o][l][e][ ][p][r][o][g][r][a][m][m][i][n][g][ ][t][h][i][n]g] [(][ ][h][e][n][c][e][ ][m][y][ ][n][a][m][e][ ]["][e][r][r][o][r][,]["][ ][p][e][r][h][a][p][s][ ][s][h][o][u][l][d][ ][b][e][ ]["][e][r][r][o][r][s]["][ ][l][o][l][)][,][ ][s][o][ ][I][ ][h][a][v][e][ ][a][ ][s][i][m][p][l][e][ ][q][u][e][s][t][i][o][n][.][ ][I][t][ ][i][s][ ][m][y][ ][u][n][d][e][r][s][t][a][n][d][i][n][g][ ][t][h][a][t][ ][w][h][e][n][ ][y][o][u][ ][w][a][n][t][ ][t][o][ ][r][e][a][d][ ][d][a][t][a][ ][i][n][t][o][ ][a][n][ ][a][r][r][a][y][ ][f][r][o][m][ ][a][ ][t][e][x][t][ ][f][i][l][e][ ][t][h][e][r][e][ ][h][a][s][ ][ ][t][o][ ][b][e][ ][w][h][i][t][e][ ][s][p][a][c][e][ ][b][e][t][w][e][e][n][ ][e][a][c][h][ ][c][h][a][r][a][c][t][e][r][,][ ][i][s][ ][t][h][e][r][e][ ][a][ ][w][a][y][ ][t][o][ ][g][e][t][ ][a][r][o][u][n][d][ ][t][h][i][s][ ][a][n][d][ ][i][f][ ][s][o][ ][h][o][w][? ][ ][Y][o][u][ ][c][a][n][n][o][t][ ][f][i][l][l][ ][a][n][ ][i][n][d][e][x][ ][w][i][t][h][ ][a][ ][w][h][i][t][e][ ][s][p][a][c][e][ ][c][a][n][ ][y][o][u][?]


Get it now? If white space can not be an element itself, then how do you simply take text from a text file and place each character in an index of an array starting from the beginning character of the first sentence to the last character of the last sentence with no spaces in between words or characters.

How do you tell your program that when running through the lines of characters that every character will be put into the array as an element exactly show in the text file and to understand that each character is an element of the array even though their are no spaces between each character.

One way I believe would be to read the file one character at a time placing them into a string like so:

Code:

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for (int x=0; x<numCharsInFile; x++)
  cin>>myString[x];

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Not sure if this is the best way, but I believe it'll get every character including spaces.

Okay I'll try that, it's so simple. :o I don't care though as long as it works.:)

Quote:

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Originally posted by PJYelton

Code:

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for (int x=0; x<numCharsInFile; x++)
  cin>>myString[x];

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Not sure if this is the best way, but I believe it'll get every character including spaces. [/B]

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cin stops at whitespace and thus will not read it in. If you want to read everything including spaces use the get() or getline() functions. You can look them up here. Also you don't want cin, instead you want an ifstream object to read from the file

Code:

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#include <ifstream>
#include <iostream>

int main()
{
    char buff[256];
    std::ifstream filein("file.txt");

    while(filein.get(buff, 256, '\n')){
        filein.ignore(5, '\n');
        std::cout << buff << std::endl;
    }
    filein.close();
}

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-Futura

Quote:

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Originally posted by error
I'm obviously a newbie with this whole programming thing (hence my name "error," perhaps should be "errors" lol), so I have a simple question. It is my understanding that when you want to read data into an array from a text file there has to be white space between each character, is there a way to get around this and if so how? You cannot fill an index with a white space can you?

I want to be able to access each character from a series of sentences individually, that is make it so each character from that sentence is in its own index in an array. I don't want to have to put white space between each character in the sentences you know.

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OK, rewind just a bit here.

1) A character is just a single byte, and is an actual numerical value.
2) The whitespace is a "character" too, which has a value of 32 in decimal, 0x20 in hexidecimal.
3) Spaces are not placed between characters in files unless you put them there.
4) Likewise for arrays.

It is the word processor that converts each byte into a visible char. Otherwise, they are simply numbers.

A file is itself an array, and you can read the contents directly into an array. There will not be any extra whitespace, and each index into that array (start at zero, of course), will be the corresponding character...

>>cin stops at whitespace and thus will not read it in<<
But if you cin a char then it should accept the whitespace as it would any other character. But then again I haven't tested this so maybe I'm wrong... You're right about using an ifstream object though instead of cin, I rushed that explanation and forgot we were talking about files! My bad!

Okay let me just clarify on what I'm trying to ask. I have a saved text file I made on Notepad as follows:

Quote:

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I'm obviously a newbie with this whole programming thing (hence my name "error," perhaps should be "errors" lol), so I have a simple question. It is my understanding that when you want to read data into an array from a text file there has to be white space between each character, is there a way to get around this and if so how? You cannot fill an index with a white space can you?

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I want to read every letter, symbol, white space etc. into an array so I can access each individually as an element of that array and I think you are telling me that this...

Code:

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for (int x=0; x<numCharsInFile; x++)
  cin>>myString[x];

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Will work but only if my text file looks exactly like the following when I open Notepad and look at my text file (that is, has no white spaces):

Quote:

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I'mobviouslyanewbiewiththiswholeprogrammingthing(h encemyname"error,"perhapsshouldbe"errors"lol),soIh aveasimplequestion.Itismyunderstandingthatwhenyouw anttoreaddataintoanarrayfromatextfiletherehastobew hitespacebetweeneachcharacter,isthereawaytogetarou ndthisandifsohow?Youcannotfillanindexwithawhitespa cecanyou?

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And if I want the white spaces, cin cannot do it for me. I'll have to use getline() which I think is an apstring fuction.

Edit: Sorry, double post. I hit quote on accident.

Consider std::getline() and std::string.

Kuphryn

Yep, I just did a quick test and it turns out that you can't use cin to get a whitespace, even if you cin a char variable. Hmmmm...

Well, you can getline each line in the file to a string, then add that string to a master string. After you getline through the entire file your master string will end up containing the entire file, including whitespace, and can be accessed like an array.