Print to file and console c++ - c++

Question

I am trying to logg my events so i thought of using ostringstream to save the output and then send it to a function where i print the output on screen and on file fstream fileOut. It wont work, it just gives me random numbers and seem not to output all new outputs on the same file but just creates a new file everytime and deletes what was on it before. How do i do this?
where the print happens:
void Event::output(ostringstream* info) {
std::cout << info << std::endl;
fileOut << info << std::endl;
}
where the output happens:
ostringstream o;
if (time < SIM_TIME) {
if (status->tryAssemble(train)) {
Time ct;
ct.fromMinutes(time);
o << ct << " Train [" << train->getTrainNumber() << "] ";
Time t(0, DELAY_TIME);
o << "(ASSEMBLED) from " << train->getStart() << " " << train->getScheduledStartTime() <<
" (" << train->getStartTime() << ") to " << train->getDest() << " " << train->getScheduledDestTime() <<
" (" << train->getDestTime() << ") delay (" << train->getDelay() << ") speed=" << train->getScheduledSpeed() <<
" km/h is now assembled, arriving at the plateform at " << train->getStartTime() - t << endl << endl;
fileOut.open("testfile.txt", std::ios::out);
if (!fileOut.is_open())
exit(1); //could not open file
output(&o);
train->setStatus(ASSEMBLED);
time += ASSEMBLE_TIME;
Event *event = new ReadyEvent(simulation, status, time, train);
simulation->addEvent(event);

Answer 1

It wont work, it just gives me random numbers
You are passing the ostringstream to your function by pointer. There is no operator<< that takes an ostringstream* pointer as input and prints its string content. But there is an operator<< that takes a void* as input and prints the memory address that the pointer is pointing at. That is the "random numbers" you are seeing. ANY type of pointer can be assigned to a void* pointer.
You need to dereference the ostringstream* pointer to access the actual ostringstream object. Even so, there is still no operator<< that takes an ostringstream as input. However, ostringstream has a str() method that returns a std::string, and there is an operator<< for printing a std::string:
void Event::output(ostringstream* info) {
std::string s = info->str();
std::cout << s << std::endl;
fileOut << s << std::endl;
}
That being said, you should pass the ostringstream by const reference instead of by pointer, since the function does not allow a null ostringstream to be passed in, and it does not modify the ostringstream in any way:
void Event::output(const ostringstream &info) {
std::string s = info.str();
std::cout << s << std::endl;
fileOut << s << std::endl;
}
...
output(o);
seem not to output all new outputs on the same file but just creates a new file everytime and deletes what was on it before.
That is because you are not opening the file with either the app or ate flag 1, so it creates a new file each time, discarding the contents of any existing file. If you want to append to an existing file instead, you need to either:
use the ate flag to "seek to the end of stream immediately after open":
fileOut.open("testfile.txt", std::ios::out | std::ios::ate);
use the app flag to "seek to the end of stream before each write":
fileOut.open("testfile.txt", std::ios::out | std::ios::app);
1: if fileOut is a std::ofstream, you do not need to specify std::ios::out explicitly.