ofstream and ifstream for searching and writing

I have a question to ask regarding reading/writing simultaneously to random files. I've searched the FAQ and the forums from DAY 1 and I have not come accross anything like what I'm trying to do. Maybe I'm just weird. I dunno. But I realise I need your help.

Here's the deal: I'm trying to read and write simultaneously to the same file using ifstream (read) and ofstream variables. The thing is, these two are separate functions. When I search for a record with ifstream, the ofstream variable doesn't know where the ifstream variable is. So I have to do a seekp on the ofstream based on the ifstream's tellg. Get it?

In short, everytime I search using ifstream, I have to update ofstream on where ifstream is so that I can write to that position. The problem is that it doesn't always work.

I miss the days of C when I could just use ONE FILE *fptr variable to do both.

My question is, am I doing something wrong here? Is that the way it's supposed to be done in C++? Your comments please.

I could tell you didn't read my post, go back and read it again.

gg

Thanks Codeplug - I think it's more of my misreading your post. Sorry...

It's still a lot more work than C though. :D

Yes, it is a pain to test for existance and create if need be. You only have to do it once - perhaps at start up.
fstream will have all the input and output methods in one package.

gg

Umm... Codeplug... I'd hate to break this to ya... but that doesn't seem to work either.

Can you declare a variable to do BOTH reading (read) and writing? (write)

That's what I am trying to do. I did try the ios::binary| ios::in| ios::out and that didn't seem to work. My compiler is telling me that the read functions aren't a member of the ofstream class.

I'm trying to read and write simultaneously - with one variable if possible.

fstream - no i and no o.

fstream contains the interfaces of both ifstream and ofstream.

gg

Thanks Codeplug - works beautifully. I just wished you had been a little clearer in the first post regarding the Deitel and Deitel. Essentially you had already answered my question.

But I think you made the misassumption that I already knew that fstream was actually the base class for both ifstream and ofstream. Hence, the reason why I completely misunderstood your first post. If I did, I wouldn't have posted this one ;)

Never the less, it works like a charm now. Thanks for your help. It was incredibly useful. :D