How do you stor the contents of a textfile in a string?

Here is what i came up with:

Code:

---

#include <fstream>
#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

int main()
{
  string str;
  ifstream a_file( "C:\test.txt" );
  a_file>>str;
  cout<<str;
  cin.get();
}

---

it doesnt display anything. I have double and triple checked the test.txt and it does contain text. Could someone please help.

Try this.

getline(a_file, str, EOF); {EDIT] change EOF to '\0'.

Code:

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ifstream a_file( "C:\test.txt" );

---

->

Code:

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ifstream a_file( "C:\\test.txt" );

---

You had a tab in your string, so it was trying to open "C:<tab>est.txt". Remember to escape backslashes when you include them in a string.

BTW, that program only reads one line.

it only reads one line? how do you have it read the entire file?

Use a stringstream, then copy the contents of the filestream's rdbuf() into that stringstream. Then get the string from the stringstream. rdbuf and stringstream might be enough to search for an example.

Quote:

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it only reads one line? how do you have it read the entire file?

---

After corrections?

That doesn't compile after corrections.

Do you need to have the whole file in memory at once? Or can you read in each line from the file, one at a time, until you've reached the end?

Since I'm here, here:

Code:

---

#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <sstream>
#include <string>

int main()
{
    std::ifstream file(__FILE__);
    std::ostringstream oss;
    if ( oss << file.rdbuf() )
    {
        std::cout << oss.str();
    }
}

---

When I changed it it compiled.
@jilou- Thanks, but could you explain it?

This does not store the file in a single string though, correct?

There could be NULL's in a file and it could not be the EOF. I don't know how reliable this is, but making EOF a char and passing it as a delimiter to std::getline seems to work.

Code:

---

        std::ifstream f("c:\\_audioscrobbler.log");
        std::string s;
        std::getline(f, s, char(EOF));
        std::cout << s;

---

That does store the file in a single string actually.

http://www.cplusplus.com/ref/iostream/ios/rdbuf.html

And then an overloaded operator << that takes a streambuf

Code:

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ostream& operator<< (streambuf& sb );

---

I figured out how to use jlou's meathod to store the file into a single string, btu I still dont understand it. Anyone have any recources for help?

http://www.cplusplus.com/ref/iostream/stringstream/

You can write data out to a this stringstream, and it'll be just like writing data to the console except to this string buffer. Kind of analogous to sprintf and printf. So he writes the file to the buffer using operator << (streambuf &), the streambuf to the file being obtained through the call to rdbuf: http://www.cplusplus.com/ref/iostream/ios/rdbuf.html and then he gets the std::string from the stringstream with the call to str http://www.cplusplus.com/ref/iostrea...tream/str.html

thanks, it isnt quite as complicated as it looks at first glance.