c++file-ioofstream

Read file line by line using ifstream in C++


The contents of file.txt are:

5 3
6 4
7 1
10 5
11 6
12 3
12 4

Where 5 3 is a coordinate pair. How do I process this data line by line in C++?

I am able to get the first line, but how do I get the next line of the file?

ifstream myfile;
myfile.open ("file.txt");

Solution

  • First, make an ifstream:

    #include <fstream>
    std::ifstream infile("thefile.txt");
    

    The two standard methods are:

    1. Assume that every line consists of two numbers and read token by token:

      int a, b;
      while (infile >> a >> b)
      {
          // process pair (a,b)
      }
      
    2. Line-based parsing, using string streams:

      #include <sstream>
      #include <string>
      
      std::string line;
      while (std::getline(infile, line))
      {
          std::istringstream iss(line);
          int a, b;
          if (!(iss >> a >> b)) { break; } // error
      
          // process pair (a,b)
      }
      

    You shouldn't mix (1) and (2), since the token-based parsing doesn't gobble up newlines, so you may end up with spurious empty lines if you use getline() after token-based extraction got you to the end of a line already.