Reading from a text file and inserting data into an array

Question

Most of the information I've found is based on numbers, however I want to use words. For instance, if my text file looks like this:

M
Gordon
Freeman
Engineer
F
Sally
Reynolds
Scientist

I want to be able to put each line into an array and output it like so:

Gender: M
First Name: Gordon
Last Name: Freeman
Job: Engineer
Gender: F
First Name: Sally
Last Name: Reynolds
Job: Scientist

This list could go on and on, but two is good for now.

I'm currently using a struct to hold the information:

struct PeopleInfo
{
    char gender; 
    char name_first [ CHAR_ARRAY_SIZE ];
    char name_last [ CHAR_ARRAY_SIZE ];
    char job [ CHAR_ARRAY_SIZE ];
};

I'm not sure if I need to use a delimiter or something to tell the program when to stop at each part (gender, first name, last name, etc). Could I use the getline function with ifstream? I'm having trouble implementing that in my own code. I'm not really sure where to start as I haven't had to use anything like this for a while now. Frantically searching through textbooks and Google to find similar problems, but so far I haven't had much luck. I will update my post with any questions and code that I discover.

Jerry Coffin · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-28 14:12:43Z

3

I think @user1200129 is on the right track, but hasn't quite gotten all the pieces put together yet.

I'd change the structure just a little bit:

struct PeopleInfo
{
    char gender; 
    std::string name_first;
    std::string name_last;
    std::string job;
};

Then I'd overload operator>> for that structure:

std::istream &operator>>(std::istream &is, PeopleInfo &p) { 
    is >> p.gender;   
    std::getline(is, p.name_first);
    std::getline(is, p.name_last);
    std::getline(is, p.job);
    return is;
}

Since you want to be able to display them, I'd add an operator<< to do that too:

std::ostream &operator<<(std::ostream &os, PeopleInfo const &p) { 
    return os << "Gender: " << p.gender << "\n"
              << "First Name: " << p.name_first << "\n"
              << "Last Name: " << p.name_last << "\n"
              << "Job: " << p.job;
}

Then reading in a file full of data can be something like this:

std::ifstream input("my file name");

std::vector<PeopleInfo> people;

std::vector<PeopleInfo> p((std::istream_iterator<PeopleInfo>(input)),
                          std::istream_iterator<PeopleInfo(),
                          std::back_inserter(people));

Likewise, displaying the people's info from the vector goes something like:

std::copy(people.begin(), people.end(),
          std::ostream_iterator<PeopleInfo>(std::cout, "\n"));

edited Feb 28, 2012 at 14:12

answered Feb 28, 2012 at 4:27

Jerry Coffin

494k83 gold badges656 silver badges1.2k bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

1 Comment

molbdnilo Over a year ago

I think you left out a few p.s in your >>.

01100110 · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-28 01:41:42Z

1

A struct may be better than an array for storing the information.

struct person
{
    std::string gender;
    std::string first_name;
    std::string last_name;
    std::string position;
};

You could then have a vector of persons and iterate over that.

edited Feb 28, 2012 at 1:41

answered Feb 28, 2012 at 1:34

01100110

2,3444 gold badges24 silver badges32 bronze badges

1 Comment

Hydlide Over a year ago

Sorry, forgot to add I am using a struct. I added the info. I'll look into vectors as well.

Jesse Good · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-28 01:24:24Z

0

Well to get you started:

// Include proper headers here
int main()
{
    std::ifstream file("nameoftextfilehere.txt");
    std::string line;
    std::vector<std::string> v; // Instead of plain array use a vector

    while (std::getline(file, line))
    {
        // Process each line here and add to vector
    }

    // Print out vector here
 }

answered Feb 28, 2012 at 1:24

Jesse Good

52.8k15 gold badges133 silver badges174 bronze badges

1 Comment

Hydlide Over a year ago

Hmm, all right thank you. I'm going to play around with this now.

Ambidextrous · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-28 01:38:23Z

0

You could also use a flag like bool maleFlag and bool femaleFlag, and set them to true and false as and when you read only 'M' or 'F' on a line, so you know what gender to associate to the names that follow.

answered Feb 28, 2012 at 1:38

Ambidextrous

8306 silver badges14 bronze badges

Comments

glu · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-28 01:48:00Z

0

You can also use your std::ifstream file as any other stream:

//your headers
int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
    std::ifstream file("name.txt");
    std::string line;
    std::vector<std::string> v; // You may use array as well

    while ( file.eof() == false ) {
        file >> line;
        v.push_back( line );
    }

    //Rest of your code
    return 0;
}

answered Feb 28, 2012 at 1:48

glu

1952 silver badges10 bronze badges

1 Comment

devil Over a year ago

while (file >> line) would be better.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Reading from a text file and inserting data into an array

5 Answers 5

1 Comment

1 Comment

1 Comment

Comments

1 Comment

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

5 Answers 5

1 Comment

1 Comment

1 Comment

Comments

1 Comment

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related