Reading a file into memory C++

[hannon565]

Hey am trying to read contents of a text file into memory and will be read later by a different function.

This is how i am considering doing it

I was thinking of reading the whole file into an array but thought it might be too big seeing as file has alot of lines of text in it

Channel :: Channel(char* channelName, char* channelNumber,  char* fileName)
 {
    this->channelName = channelName;
    this->channelNumber = channelNumber;
    this->fielName = fileName;
    


    fstream* file = new fstream (FileName, fstream :: in);
    
    char aSingleCharacter;
    
    aSingleCharacter = (char) file->get();

    while(aSingleCharacter != EOF)
    {
        aSingleCharacter = (char)file -> get();
    }
    
}

any help be much appericated.

[jonsca]

It's best not to use EOF.

You probably don't have to read character by character also. Look into the >> operator and the getline() method of istream (implemented by ifstream).

[abdelhakeem]

Do you mean, How to read file in binary mode?
If, so you may do something like this:

file->read(reinterpret_cast<char *>(this), sizeof(Channe1));

Correct me if i did something wrong

,,,
Kimo :P

[WaltP]

It's best not to use EOF.

EOF is fine. It's best not to us .eof() -- a big difference. :icon_wink:

[jonsca]

You've done it again WaltP! That's my bad. Well, Dave's thread's a good read anyway. :)

I still maintain that reading in character by character (and seemingly throwing them away once a new one is read) is probably not the best approach.

[hannon565]

Kim
I'm trying read from text file into memory, to be used by different classes to search through.

Thanks for all the help =]

[hannon565]

Sorry quick question about getline();
Is there anyway to set it so that will read till end of line without stating the amount of characters you want read

exaxmple:

getline(line, MAX_CHAR_BUFFER_SIZE);

[Nick Evan]

if you use std::strings, then yes:

std::string buffer;
ifstream in("c:/.........");
std::getline(in, buffer);
std::cout << "Read :" << buffer;

But if you insist on using char-arrays, then you need to input the number of chars to read. This is to prevent you from running out of your arays bound without even noticing.