using #ifstream to display and format a file in the console

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4.00/5 (1 vote)

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Not technically formatting but positioning non the less.

I am new to C++ and am trying to make a basic program that opens a text file, reads it, and displays the information like so:

Computer names, and IP's of users
ComputerName xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx UserName
ComputerName xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx UserName
ComputerName xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx UserName
etc etc

I can't seem to get the hang of what seems a pretty simple (simple...) task of working with file streams.

The basic code (before I deleted it) looked something like this.

Int main(){

char ch;
ifstream fin ("list.txt");
    while (fin.get(ch))
          {
          cout << ch;
}

Which would output the whole document, in an unformatted fashion like so
ComputerName 192.192.192.192 RandomUserName
ComputerName 192.192.192.50 OtherRandomUserName
ComputerName 192.192.192.30 SomeOtherRandomUserName

It is a simple task but no matter what I do I can not make strings of individual computer names, ip, username etc with out massive compile errors.

If someone could simply point me the right way I would be happy.

Also I tried the google machine for this but kept finding contradictory articles. eg Some would use peek() to add spacing, and others would use other methods that I couldn't find header files and what not.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks

Signed,

Noob

Posted 23-Mar-11 18:50pm

BigHeadedGuitarist

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Niklas L · Answer 1 · 2011-03-23T21:25:00

Solution 1

Here are the steps:

1. Use istream::getline() to get an entire line from the file.
2. Construct a std::istringstream on the line data.
3. Use stream operators (>>) to extract the three strings, or use std::copy() to copy them to a std::vector<std::string>.

Posted 23-Mar-11 21:25pm

Niklas L

CPallini · Answer 2 · 2011-03-23T22:53:00

You may use ios_base::width and ios::fill for specifying the 'xxx' format, for instance

C++

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
  int ip[]={192,168, 1, 20};
  cout.width(3);
  cout.fill('0');

  for (int i=0; i<sizeof(ip)/sizeof(ip[0]); i++)
  {
    if (i) cout << '.';
    cout.width(3);
    cout << ip[i];
  }
  cout << endl;
}

outputs

192.168.001.020

BigHeadedGuitarist · Answer 3 · 2011-03-24T19:20:00

Solution 3

Thanks for the posts, I think I have jumped the gun a bit.

I have read a book on C++ and believed I knew enough to do this, I am going to start smaller and work to this.

I will make the app have static values rather than reading them from a file.

Thanks for the advice though.

Posted 24-Mar-11 19:20pm