Garbage value when getting integer value from binary file in c++ - c++

I am studying binary file of C++ nowadays. I made a example code for it, but it does not work well.
#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
using namespace std;
int main() {
ofstream writeFile;
ifstream readFile;
int temp = 1;
writeFile.open("file.dat", ios::binary);
for (int i = 5; i <= 10 ; i++) // range 5 to 10
writeFile.write((char*)(&i), sizeof(i));
writeFile.close();
readFile.open("file.dat", ios::binary);
readFile.seekg(0);
while (!readFile.eof()) {
readFile.read((char*)(&temp), sizeof(temp));
cout << "temp: " << temp << endl;
readFile >> ws;
}
readFile.close();
system("pause");
return 0;
}
Here is the result:
temp: 5
temp: 6
temp: 7
temp: 8
temp: 167772160
temp: 167772160
When I change the range not to include 9 (for example, 5 to 8), it works well. Also, When I make the same code with double type, it works well. So I think the integer 9 is problem. Can you tell me why?

readFile >> ws; discards white space, which is non-sense for a binary stream. In this case, the character value 9 (which is '\t') is skipped, corrupting your stream. Simply remove that line.
The second problem is you are not checking the state of the stream between reading and displaying the value. EOF is only detected after a read would exceed the end of the file. This is why you get your invalid value twice, the second time the read fails and simply leaves temp with it's previous value. See this question for a more details.

The answer by François Andrieux already has the answer to the question of why your code behaves the way it does.
Here are couple of methods to fix the problem.
Use a for loop to read the numbers. It mirrors the loop used to write to it.
readFile.open("file.dat", ios::binary);
for (int i = 5; i <= 10 ; i++)
{
readFile.read((char*)(&temp), sizeof(temp));
cout << "temp: " << temp << endl;
}
readFile.close();
Use the while loop correctly.
readFile.open("file.dat", ios::binary);
while (readFile.read((char*)(&temp), sizeof(temp)))
{
cout << "temp: " << temp << endl;
}
readFile.close();

Related

Using fscanf to read from tabbed file with ints and floats in C++

I have looked for a day or so on StackOverflow and other sites, and I can't find a solution to my problem. There are some that are similar, but I can't seem to make them work.
I have a tab-delimited .txt file. One line contains a heading, and 500 lines after that each contain an integer, an integer, a float, an integer, and an integer, in that order. I have a function that is supposed to read the first and third values (the first integer and the float) from each line. It skips the first line. This is in a do-while loop, because I need to be able to process files of different lengths. However, it's getting stuck in the loop. I have it set to output the mean, but it just outputs zeros forever.
void HISTS::readMeans(int rnum) {
int r;
char skip[500];
int index = 0; int area = 0; double mean = 0; int min = 0; int max = 0;
FILE *datafile = fopen(fileName,"r");
if(datafile == NULL) cout << "No such file!\n";
else {
//ignore the first line of the file
r = fscanf(datafile,"%s\n",skip);
cout << skip << endl; //just to check
//this is the problematic code
do {
r = fscanf(datafile,"%d\t%d\t%f\t%d\t%d\n",&index,&area,&mean,&min,&max);
cout << mean << " ";
} while(feof(datafile) != 1)
}
fclose(datafile);
}
Here is a sample data file of the format I'm trying to read:
Area Mean Min Max
1 262144 202.448 160 687
2 262144 201.586 155 646
3 262144 201.803 156 771
Thanks!
Edit: I said I need to read the first and third value, and I know I'm reading all of them. Eventually I need to store the first and third value, but I cut that part for the sake of brevity. Not that this comment is brief.
You should do it C++ style,
#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
int main() {
std::ifstream inf("file.txt");
if (!inf) { exit(1); }
int idx, area, min, max;
double mean;
while (inf >> idx >> area >> mean >> min >> max) {
if (inf.eof()) break;
std::cout << idx << " " << area << " " << mean << " " << min << " " << max << std::endl;
}
return 0;
}
It is :
1) Easy to read.
2) Less code, so less chance of error.
3) Correct handling of EOF.
Although I have left handling of first line, that is upto you.
fscanf returns the number of arguments read. Thus, if it returns less than 5 you should exit the loop.
OP ended up using operator>>, which is the correct way to do this in C++. However, for the interested C reader, there were a couple of issues in the code posted:
mean was declared as double but read using the wrong format specifier %f instead of %lf.
The first line wasn't completely read, but only the first token, Area.
A possible way to implement the desired task is as follows:
r = fscanf(datafile,"%[^\n]\n",skip);
// ^^^^^ read till newline
while ( (r = fscanf(datafile,"%d%d%lf%d%d",&index,&area,&mean,&min,&max)) == 5 ) {
// ^^ correct format specifier for double
// ...
}

Output from array is wrong

#include <iostream>
#include <iomanip>
#include <cstdlib>
#include <fstream>
using namespace std;
void make_array(ifstream &num, int (&array)[50]);
int main(){
ifstream file; // variable controlling the file
char filename[100]; /// to handle calling the file name;
int array[50];
cout << "Please enter the name of the file you wish to process:";
cin >> filename;
cout << "\n";
file.open(filename);
if(file.fail()){
cout << "The file failed to open.\n";
exit(1);
}
else{
cout << "File Opened Successfully.\n";
}
make_array(file, array);
file.close();
return(0);
}
void make_array(ifstream &num, int (&array)[50]){
int i = 0; // counter variable
while(!num.eof() && i < 50){
num >> array[i];
i = i + 1;
}
for(i; i>=0; i--){
cout << array[i] << "\n";
}
}
Alright, so this it my code so far. When I output the contents of the array, I get two really large negative numbers before the expected output. For example, if the file had 1 2 3 4 in it, my program is outputting -6438230 -293948 1 2 3 4.
Can somebody please tell me why I am getting these ridiculous values?
Your code outputs the array backwards, and also it increments i twice after it has finished reading all the values. This is why you see two garbage values at the start. I suspect you are misreporting your output and you actually saw -6438230 -293948 4 3 2 1.
You end up with the extra increments because your use of eof() is wrong. This is an amazingly common error for some reason. See here for further info. Write your loop like this instead:
while ( i < 50 && num >> array[i] )
++i;
Now i holds the number of valid items in the list. Assuming you do actually want to output them backwards:
while ( i-- > 0 )
cout << array[i] << "\n";
To output them forwards you'll need two variables (one to store the total number of items in the array, and one to do the iteration)
The check !num.eof() only tells you that the last thing you read was not eof. So, if your file was 1 2 3 4, the check will only kick in after the 5th num>>array[i] call. However, for that i, array[i] will be populated with a meaningless value. The only correct way to deal with eofs is to check for validity on every call to operator>>. In other words, the right condition is simply num>>array[i]. This works by exploiting this conversion to bool since C++11 and to void* pre-C++11.

How to convert vector to string and convert back to vector

----------------- EDIT -----------------------
Based on juanchopanza's comment : I edit the title
Based on jrok's comment : I'm using ofstream to write, and ifstream to read.
I'm writing 2 programs, first program do the following tasks :
Has a vector of integers
convert it into array of string
write it in a file
The code of the first program :
vector<int> v = {10, 200, 3000, 40000};
int i;
stringstream sw;
string stringword;
cout << "Original vector = ";
for (i=0;i<v.size();i++)
{
cout << v.at(i) << " " ;
}
cout << endl;
for (i=0;i<v.size();i++)
{
sw << v[i];
}
stringword = sw.str();
cout << "Vector in array of string : "<< stringword << endl;
ofstream myfile;
myfile.open ("writtentext");
myfile << stringword;
myfile.close();
The output of the first program :
Original vector : 10 200 3000 40000
Vector in string : 10200300040000
Writing to File .....
second program will do the following tasks :
read the file
convert the array of string back into original vector
----------------- EDIT -----------------------
Now the writing and reading is fine, thanks to Shark and Jrok,I am using a comma as a separator. The output of first program :
Vector in string : 10,200,3000,40000,
Then I wrote the rest of 2nd program :
string stringword;
ifstream myfile;
myfile.open ("writtentext");
getline (myfile,stringword);
cout << "Read From File = " << stringword << endl;
cout << "Convert back to vector = " ;
for (int i=0;i<stringword.length();i++)
{
if (stringword.find(','))
{
int value;
istringstream (stringword) >> value;
v.push_back(value);
stringword.erase(0, stringword.find(','));
}
}
for (int j=0;j<v.size();i++)
{
cout << v.at(i) << " " ;
}
But it can only convert and push back the first element, the rest is erased. Here is the output :
Read From File = 10,200,3000,40000,
Convert back to vector = 10
What did I do wrong? Thanks
The easiest thing would be to insert a space character as a separator when you're writing, as that's the default separator for operator>>
sw << v[i] << ' ';
Now you can read back into an int variable directly, formatted stream input will do the conversion for you automatically. Use vector's push_back method to add values to it as you go.
Yes, this question is over a year old, and probably completely irrelevant to the original asker, but Google led me here so it might lead others here too.
When posting, please post a complete minimal working example, having to add #include and main and stuff is time better spent helping. It's also important because of your very problem.
Why your second code isn't working is all in this block
for (int i=0;i<stringword.length();i++)
{
if (stringword.find(','))
{
int value;
istringstream (stringword) >> value;
v.push_back(value);
stringword.erase(0, stringword.find(','));
}
}
istringstream (stringword) >> value interprets the data up to the comma as an integer, the first value, which is then stored.
stringword.find(',') gets you the 0-indexed position of the comma. A return value of 0 means that the character is the first character in the string, it does not tell you whether there is a comma in the string. In that case, the return value would be string::npos.
stringword.erase deletes that many characters from the start of the string. In this case, it deletes 10, making stringword ,200,3000,40000. This means that in the next iteration stringword.find(',') returns 0.
if (stringword.find(',')) does not behave as wished. if(0) casts the integer to a bool, where 0 is false and everything else is true. Therefore, it never enters the if-block again, as the next iterations will keep checking against this unchanged string.
And besides all that there's this:
for (int j=0;j<v.size();i++)
{
cout << v.at(i) << " " ;
}
it uses i. That was declared in a for loop, in a different scope.
The code you gave simply doesn't compile, even with the added main and includes. Heck, v isn't even defined in the second program.
It is however not enough, as the for condition stringword.length() is recalculated every loop. In this specific instance it works, because your integers get an extra digit each time, but let's say your input file is 1,2,3,4,:
The loop executes normally three times
The fourth time, stringword is 4, stringword.length() returns 2, but i is already valued 3, so i<stringword.length() is invalid, and the loop exits.
If you want to use the string's length as a condition, but edit the string during processing, store the value before editing. Even if you don't edit the string, this means less calls to length().
If you save length beforehand, in this new scenario that would be 8. However, after 4 loops string is already empty, and it executes the for loop some more times with no effect.
Instead, as we are editing the string to become empty, check for that.
All this together makes for radically different code altogether to make this work:
while (!stringword.empty())
{
int value;
istringstream (stringword) >> value;
v.push_back(value);
stringword.erase(0, stringword.find(',')+1);
}
for (int i = 0; i < v.size(); i++)
{
cout << v.at(i) << " " ;
}
A different way to solve this would have been to not try to find from the start, but from index i onwards, leaving a string of commas. But why stick to messy stuff if you can just do this.
And that's about it.

C++ file writing/reading

I'm trying to create an array, write array to the file and than display it. It seems to be working but i get just part of the output (first 3 elements) or i get values over boundaries.
#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
int arr[20];
int i;
for (i = 0; i < 5; i++)
{
cout << "Enter the value to the array: " << endl;
cin >> arr[i];
}
ofstream fl("numbers.txt");
if (!fl)
{
cout << "file could not be open for writing ! " <<endl;
}
for (i = 0; i < arr[i]; i++)
{
fl<<arr[i]<<endl;
}
fl.close();
ifstream file("numbers.txt");
if(!file)
{
cout << "Error reading from file ! " << endl;
}
while (!file.eof())
{
std::string inp;
getline(file,inp);
cout << inp << endl;
}
file.close();
return 0;
}
The terminating condition in the for loop is incorrect:
for(i=0;i<arr[i];i++)
If the user enters the following 5 ints:
1 0 4 5 6
the for loop will terminate at the second int, the 0, as 1 < 0 (which is what i<arr[i] would equate to) is false. The code has the potential to access beyond the bounds of the array, for input:
10 11 12 13 14
the for loop will iterate beyond the first 5 elements and start processing unitialised values in the array arr as it has not been initialised:
int arr[20];
which could result in out of bounds access on the array if the elements in arr happen to always be greater than i.
A simple fix:
for(i=0;i<5;i++)
Other points:
always check the result of I/O operations to ensure variables contain valid values:
if (!(cin >> arr[i]))
{
// Failed to read an int.
break;
}
the for loop must store the number of ints read into the arr, so the remainder of the code only processes values provided by the user. An alternative to using an array, with a fixed size, and a variable to indicate the number of populated elements is to use a std::vector<int> that would contain only valid ints (and can be queried for its size() or iterated using iterators).
while (!file.eof()) is not correct as the end of file flag will set only once a read attempted to read beyond the end of the file. Check the result of I/O operations immediately:
while (std::getline(file, inp))
{
}
its like hmjd said
for(i=0;i<arr[i];i++)
looks wrong
it should look like this
int size;
size=sizeof(your array);
for(i=0;i<size;i++)
Try this:
//for(i=0;i<arr[i];i++)
for(i=0;i<5;i++)
[EDITED]
I would initialize the array with 0 like this: int arr[20] = {0}; In this case you can use for example:
while ((arr[i] != 0 || i < sizeof(arr))
i<array[i]
It is wrong beacuse it comapres with the content of the array ,it does not check the size of array .

Assign last number of a text file to a variable C++

I am doing a program that outputs a list of prime numbers with fstream.
I have this so far:
int export_list (int lim = 50)
{
int x;
last_in_txt = ????????????; // assigns last number on txt
ofstream file ("Primes.txt" , ios::app);
if (file.is_open()) // if it opens correctly
{
for (x = last_in_txt ; x < lim ; x++)
{
if (check_prime (x)) // returns 1 when x is prime, returns 0 when not
{
file<< x << " ";
}
}
cout << "Done!" << endl << pressenter;
cin.get();
}
else
{
cout << "Unable to open file" << endl << pressenter;
cin.get();
}
return(0);
}
So, as you can see, this should append a list of prime numbers to Primes.txt, starting with the prime 1234547.
Primes.txt looks like this:
2 3 5 7 11 13 17 19 23 29 31 37 (...) 1234543 1234547
My question is how do I assign 1234547 (which is the last number of the txt) to the variable last_in_txt?
Other (not so important) question:
Should I save the numbers the way I'm currently doing, or should I store each number in a separate line?
One simple way: keep reading and assign until the whole file is read.
For example,
int last_in_txt = 0;
{
ifstream infile("Prime.txt");
int k;
while(infile >> k) {
last_in_txt = k;
}
}
// Now last_in_txt is assigned properly, and Prime.txt is closed
This works well no matter the numbers in Prime.txt are separated by space characters (' ') or by newline characters ('\n').
My suggestion is that you write using binary format into the text file(using wb in C). In this case you will know how many bytes does the last number occupy and you will be able to use seekg and tellg to get it. If you use plain text format you will have to read char by char from the end and this is more error-prone and also slower.