C++ Arrays and Reading from file - c++

Question

I'm creating an address book program that allow user to search by first name, last name,phone number and address. The user is prompted to enter a file name and the file is read into an array. I'm having trouble modifying by existing SearchFirstName function to loop through array. I have read over this topic multiple times I'm just not understanding it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
File
Susan, Smith, 123 456 789
101 Main Street
Bob, Smith, 567 345 9076
456 Market Street
Header File
#include<string>
using namespace std;
enum Title {Mr, Mrs, Ms, Dr, NA};
struct NameType {
Title title;
string firstName;
string lastName;
};
struct AddressType {
string street;
string city;
string state;
string zip;
};
struct PhoneType {
int areaCode;
int prefix;
int number;
};
struct entryType {
NameType name;
AddressType address;
PhoneType phone;
};
const int MAX_RECORDS = 50;
struct addressBookType {
entryType record[MAX_RECORDS];
int numEntries;
};
Code
string bookArray[MAX_RECORDS];
int main()
{
entryType userRecord;
string filename;
ifstream inData;
char searchOption;
OpenFile(filename, inData);
MainMenu(inData, filename);
return 0;
}
void OpenFile(string& filename, ifstream& inData)
{
do {
cout << "Enter file name to open: ";
cin >> filename;
inData.open(filename.c_str());
if (!inData)
cout << "File not found!" << endl;
} while (!inData);
if(inData.is_open())
{
for(int i=0; i<MAX_RECORDS;i++)
{
inData>> bookArray[i];
}
}
}
// Searches passed file stream for a first name read from the user
void SearchFirstName(ifstream& inData)
{
string searchName;
entryType userRecord;
string normalSearchName, normalFirstName;
char choice;
bool found = false;
cout << "Enter first name to search for: ";
cin >> searchName;
normalSearchName = NormalizeString(searchName); // Convert name to all uppercase
// Loop through all records in the file
while (GetRecord(inData, userRecord)){
normalFirstName = NormalizeString(userRecord.name.firstName); // Convert retrieved string to all uppercase
if (normalFirstName == normalSearchName) { // Requested name matches
PrintRecord(userRecord);
cout << "Is this the correct entry? (Y/N)";
cin >> choice;
choice = toupper(choice);
cout << endl;
if (choice == 'Y') {
found = true;
break;
}
}
}
// Matching name was found before the end of the file
if (inData && !found){
cout << "Record found: " << endl;
PrintRecord(userRecord);
cout << endl;
}
else if (!found) // End of file. Name not found.
{
cout << searchName << " not found!" << endl << endl;
}
// Clear file fail state and return to beginning
inData.clear();
inData.seekg(0);
}
My attempt
void SearchFirstName(ifstream& inData)
{
string searchName;
entryType userRecord;
cout << "Enter first name to search for: ";
cin >> searchName;
string newSearchName = NormalizeString(searchName);
string upFirst = NormalizeString(userRecord.name.firstName);
for (int i=0;i<MAX_RECORDS;i++)
{
while(newSearchName == upFirst)
{
if (bookArray[i]== upFirst)
{
cout<<"Name Found";
cout <<bookArray[i]; //test case
}
}
}
}

Answer 1

Create your array, in this case it'll be an std::vector because that is more simple to use, by running your GetRecord function inside of a while loop and appending the result to the vector w/vector_variable_name.push_back(NormalizeString(value_returned_from_GetRecord));. The NormalizeString part is so you don't have to call it billions of times later.
Pass in your array like so void SearchFirstName(std::vector<entryType> *in_data_arr>)
Change your while loop to a for loop: for (int i = 0; i < in_data_arr.size(); i++) {
Inside the loop change normalSearchName = NormalizeString(searchName); to normalSearchName = in_data_arr[i].name.firstName;
And from there it should generally be identical.