putting a list (.txt) file into a 2D array - c++

Question

I'm trying to separate a text file (which has a list of 200 strings) and store each other string (even number and odd number in the list) into a 2D Array.
The text file is ordered in this way (without the numbers):
Alabama
Brighton
Arkansas
Bermuda
Averton
Burmingham
I would like to store it in a 2 dimensional array called strLine[101][2] iterating throughout so the first string in the list is in location [0][0] and the second string of the list is in location [0][1], etc until the file finishes reading and the list becomes organized like this (without the numbers):
Alabama | Brighton
Arkansas | Bermuda
Avertinon | Burmingham
My code outputs the original unsorted list at the moment, i would like to know how to implement the 2d array (with correct syntax) and how to implement an i, j for-loop in the getline() function so it can iterate through each element of the 2D array.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
My code:
bool LoadListBox()
{
// Declarations
ifstream fInput; // file handle
string strLine[201]; // array of string to hold file data
int index = 0; // index of StrLine array
TCHAR szOutput[50]; // output to listbox,
50 char TCHAR
// File Open Process
fInput.open("data.txt"); // opens the file for read only
if (fInput.is_open())
{
getline( // read a line from the file
fInput, // handle of file to read
strLine[index]); // storage destination and index iterator
while (fInput.good()) // while loop for open file
{
getline( // read line from data file
fInput, // file handle to read
strLine[index++]); // storage destination
}
fInput.close(); // close the file
index = 0; // resets back to start of string
while (strLine[index] != "") // while loop for string not void
{
size_t pReturnValue; // return code for mbstowcs_s
mbstowcs_s( // converts string to TCHAR
&pReturnValue, // return value
szOutput, // destination of the TCHAR
50, // size of the destination TCHAR
strLine[index].c_str(), // source of string as char
50); // max # of chars to copy
SendMessage( // message to a control
hWnd_ListBox, // handle to listbox
LB_ADDSTRING, // append string to listbox
NULL, // window parameter not used
LPARAM(szOutput)); // TCHAR to add
index++; // next element of string array
}
return true; // file loaded okay
}
return false; // file did not load okay
}

Answer 1

Step 1
Transform string strLine[201]; to string place[100][2];. Also consider making a
struct place
{
std::string state;
std::string city;
};
because it is a bit more explicit what exactly is being stored. More expressive code is easier to read, generally prevents mistakes (harder to accidentally use strLine[x][2] or something like that), and requires less commenting. Code that comments itself should be a personal goal. The compiler doesn't care, of course, but few people are compilers.
Step 2
Use two separate index variables. Name the first something like num_entries because what it's really doing is counting the number of items in the array.
Step 3
Read two lines into the inner array and test the result of the reads. If they read successfully, increment the index.
while (getline(fInput, place[num_entries][0]) && getline(fInput, place[num_entries][1]))
{
num_entries++;
}
Step 4 (optional clean-up)
Step 2 turns while (strLine[index] != "") into while (index < num_entries)
Replace all of the 50s with a constant. That way you can't change the value and miss a few 50s AND it's easier to infer meaning from a good, descriptive identifier than a raw number.