CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c++arrays
WorldDominator
WorldDominator

Reputation: 141

c++ line from file stored in char array

I want to be able to read a full line into a character array using a function.

example input text is:

Schmidt, Helga
Alvarez, Ruben
Zowkowski, Aaron
Huang, Sun Lee
Einstein, Beverly

However, im not sure how to read a full line of characters into the array. I know the delimiter for >> is whitespace, but I'm not sure if I change that delimiter to '\n' if it'd work?

void buildList(char (*array)[25], ifstream& inputFile){
    string line;
    for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++)
        getline(inputFile, line);
        array[i] = line.c_str();     
}

Currently this only reads either a last name or first name into my input instead of the whole line. I'm not sure how I can go about changing this. Thanks.

Upvotes: 2

Views: 6930

Answers (2)

Shubham
Shubham

Reputation: 955

Use this-

void buildList(char (*array)[25], ifstream& inputFile){
    for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++)
        std::inputFile.getline(array[i],50);
}

The second parameter of getline is the maximum number of characters to write to the character array.

Upvotes: 1

James Kanze
James Kanze

Reputation: 153909

First, you definitely want to use std::string here. Once you do that, you can use std::getline:

std::vector<std::string>
buildList( istream& input )
{
    std::vector<std::string> results;
    std::string line
    while ( std::getline( input, line ) ) {
        results.push_back( line );
    }
}

This will make for much simpler and more robust code.

If you have to use such a broken interface, there is a member function getline:

for ( int i = 0; i != 5; ++ i ) {
    input.getline( array[i], maxLength );
}

Also: a function should never take an std::ifstream& as argument (unless it is going to open or close the file). An std::istream& should be used.

Upvotes: 5

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