CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c++
Gorkem Ozcan
Gorkem Ozcan

Reputation: 21

Cannot open a text file though it is in my resources file

#include <fstream>
#include <iostream>
//Bear in mind that the text file is already in the resources file
int main()
{ 
      ifstream file("Hamlet.txt", ios::in);//open file
      if (file.is_open() == true) cout << "File is open" << endl;
      else if (file.is_open() == false) cout << "File isnt open" << endl;
      return 0;
}

So I'm trying to see if the file is open or not, the text file is in the resources file so as far as I know the path of the file can be written as "Hamlet.txt" . I keep getting File isnt open, what may be the reason? Can anyone bring an explanation to this? Thanks in advance

Upvotes: 0

Views: 1478

Answers (2)

Simple
Simple

Reputation: 14420

If you are talking about Win32 resource files, you can't open your file like that. You need to use the resource API:

HRSRC const rsrc = FindResource(nullptr, MAKEINTRESOURCE(HAMLET), RT_STRING);
HGLOBAL const resource = LoadResource(nullptr, rsrc);
void const* const data = LockResource(resource);
// Use your data here.

HAMLET is a preprocessor macro used to identify your "Hamlet.txt" file from the .rc file.

Upvotes: 2

erip
erip

Reputation: 16995

The problem is that you need to run the executable in the same directory where Hamlet.txt lives. This is a big problem in C++, so typically you'll give the absolute path to the file, so you might do something like this:

ifstream file("/path/to/Hamlet.txt", ios::in);

A few other notes: the file is either open, or it's not. Thus, you don't need else if, you can simply use else. Additionally, you can use non-falsey values to indicate true; so you don't need to check == true (though it's more explicit). You could just check if(file.is_open()), which I think is more readable.

Putting these suggestions together, here's what you can do:

#include <fstream>
#include <iostream>

int main()
{ 
      ifstream file("/absolute/path/to/Hamlet.txt", ios::in);
      if (file.is_open()) {
        std::cout << "File is open" << std::endl;
      } else {
        std::cout << "File isnt open" << std::endl;
      }
      return 0;
}

Upvotes: 0

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