What does "no match for 'operator >>'" mean in my code? - c++

Question

I'm trying to look for what is wrong in this fragment of code. It says the error : [Error] no match for 'operator>>' in 'inputData >> Player[i].AthleteType::firstName' for the line:
inputData >> Player[i].firstName;
Can someone tell me what this means? And also if this is the right way to read data from a file that looks like this:
Peter Gab 2653 Kenya 127
Usian Bolt 6534 Jamaica 128
Other Name 2973 Bangladesh -1
Bla Bla 5182 India 129
Some Name 7612 London -1
//this is the structure
struct AthleteType
{
string firstName[SIZE];
string lastName[SIZE];
int athleteNumber[SIZE];
string country[SIZE];
int athleteTime[SIZE];
};
void readInput(int SIZE)
{
AthleteType Player[SIZE];
ifstream inputData("Athlete info.txt");
int noOfRecords=0;
for (int i=0; i < SIZE; i++, noOfRecords++)
{
inputData >> Player[i].firstName;
inputData >> Player[i].lastName;
inputData >> Player[i].athleteNumber;
inputData >> Player[i].country;
inputData >> Player[i].athleteTime;
}
for (int i=0; i < noOfRecords; i++)
{
cout << "First Name: " << Player[i].firstName << endl;
cout << "Last Name: " << Player[i].lastName << endl;
cout << "Athlete Number: " << Player[i].athleteNumber << endl;
cout << "Country: " << Player[i].country << endl;
cout << "Athlete Time: " << Player[i].athleteTime << endl;
cout << endl;
}
}

Answer 1

There are several problems with your attempt. Firstly your struct
struct AthleteType {
string firstName[SIZE];
string lastName[SIZE];
int athleteNumber[SIZE];
string country[SIZE];
int athleteTime[SIZE];
};
Your compiler error is telling you that you can't read into an array of strings, inputData >> firstName[SIZE];. One string at a time is fine of course.
If i peer into my crystal ball, I see that you want to store several athletes. This should be done using a vector.
vector<Athlete> athletes;
And the struct can then be
struct Athlete
{
string firstName;
string lastName;
int athleteNumber;
string country;
int athleteTime;
};
One athlete per object.
When reading from an input file you want to read based on read success.
while(inputData >> athlete){
athletes.push_back(athlete);
}
You can do this by overloading operator>> (istream&, Athlete& ); or you can write a function that does a similar job.
istream& readAthlete(istream& in, Athlete& at){
return in >> at.firstName >> at.lastName >> at.athleteNumber >> ... and so on;
}
Now the read function can be written as
vector<Athlete> readInput(string filename){
vector<Athlete> athletes;
ifstream inputData(filename);
Athlete athlete;
while(readAthlete(inputData, athlete)){
athletes.push_back(athlete);
}
return athletes;
}
This is not tested code, it might work, it might not work, but it should give you a reasonable path forward.