reading formatted data files

is it possible to use the getline() function to skip a word and get the data after the word? I am wanting to make a program that reads from a formatted .txt file and then when done with the file, append the new data to the same formatted .txt file.
here is an example of the txt file...

Code:

---

EntryNumber:          1
EntryName:            JOE SOMEBODY
EntryHPhone:          111-1111
EntryCPhone:          222-2222
EntryAdress:          1234 Somewhere St.

---

As you can see, i want the data to the right of the colon of each line. How would I read the file to where I could skip the Entry" " part of the line, and then use getline() to read the data?

Use a stringstream or some other tokenizer.

first use getline() with a string, after that, you can use substr(), because every line is formatted.

i havnt really looked up on how stringstreams work but with the getline() method...so basically it reads the whole file... how would i use substr() to retreive the data that i want?

Read each line into a string, then use std::string::substr(). Google "c++ string substr" for more info.

A tokenizer would be best for something like this; substr() works but you would have to assume that the 'actual' data starts at a specific location in the string, which may be the case, although a tokenizer is still the 'cleaner' (but not faster) way of doing it. Basically, when using substr(), you'd pass it the location of the start of the 'actual' data, and have it give you everything from that location to the end of the string.