Making a .dat file

[mb1]

I need to write a program, in C++, that will read from a .dat file

How do I make one? My book mentions a header line, etc. It does not go into any more detail and I can't find a description of how to do it online.

Am I making this harder than I need to?

Thanks,
MB1

[Dave Sinkula]

Show us your basic attempt start to the code with [co[u][/u]de][/co[u][/u]de] tags.

[mb1]

All I can figure is to make a .txt file and call it Scores.dat

In the file:

Names       Score1     Score2     Score3      Score4      Score5
Sims          91         89         73          81          93

I'm supposed to read from the .dat file and compute the scores and assign a letter grade. I've got the program but I have no idea on where to start to make a .dat file.
Thanks for getting back with me.

[Dave Sinkula]

I've got the program

You've got a program that reads from the .dat file, so why not post that?

program but I have no idea on where to start to make a .dat file.

All I can figure is to make a .txt file and call it Scores.dat

I'm confused. As far as I know, a .dat file is just the same as any other text file. It just a name. Or do you draw a distinction?

[mb1]

I though there was a distinction. I assume I just write the headings with the appropriate information under the headings.

I didn't write the C++ code because I wrote it to read an array. I was confused with the .dat issue.

[sifuedition]

Yes a .dat is just a different file extention. You can create this in windows with just notepad and when you save it make it filename.dat. Actually, in Linix/Unix it is the same. Just save it with filename.dat.

[Ancient Dragon]

Its been my experience that .dat files contain binary data, such as the computer's binary representation of an integer and not the ascii digits that you will find in a text file. .dat files normally can not be easily read by text editors such as Notepad.exe.
Exemple:

struct mystruct
{
   int a;
   long b;
   float c;
   double d;
};

int main()
{
    myruct s 

   // write the structure to the file
   ofstream out("mydata.dat", ios::binary);
   out.write((char *)&s,sizeof(s));
   out.close();

   // now read the file
   ifstream in("mydata.dat", ios::binary);
   in.read((char*)&s,sizeof(s));
   in.close();
}