Save the variables of an object to then be able to initialise another object with those variables - c++

Question

What I am trying to achieve is this:
Let's say I have a class Score. This class has an int variable and a char* variable.
Now when I have an object Score score, I would like to be able to save the value of those variables (I guess to a file). So now this file has an int variable and a char* variable that I can then access later to create a new Score object.
So I create Score score(10, "Bert");. I either do something like score.SaveScore(); or the score gets saved when the game is over or the program exits, it doesn't matter.
Basically I am looking for the equivalent/correct way of doing this:
score.SaveScore(FILE file)
{
file.var1 = score.score;
file.var2 = score.name;
}
I realize this is probably very stupid and not done this way whatsoever! This is just me trying to explain what I am trying to achieve in the simplest way possible.
Anyway, when I run the program again, that original Score score(10, "Bert") does not exist any more. But I would like to be able to access the saved score(from file or wherever it may be) and create another Score object.
So it may look something like:
LoadScore(FILE file)
{
Score newScore(file.var1, file.var2);
}
Again, just trying to show what I am trying to achieve.
The reason why I want to be able to access the variables again is to eventually have a Scoreboard, the Scoreboard would load a bunch of scores from the file.
Then when a new score is created, it is added to the scoreboard, compared to the other scores currently in the scoreboard and inserted in the right position (like a score of 6 would go in between 9 and 4).
I feel like this was a bit long winded but I was trying to really explain myself well! Which I hope I did!
Anyway, I am not looking for someone to tell me how to do all of that.
All I am after is how to do the initial save to a file.
Thank you for any suggestions.

Answer 1

I would use the <fstream> library, like this;
//example values
int x=10;
float y=10.5;
const char* chars = "some random value";
string str(chars); //make string buffer for sizing
str.resize(20); //make sure its fixed size
//open a test.txt file, in the same dir for output
std::ofstream os("test.txt", std::ios::out | std::ios::binary); //make it output binary
//(char*) cast &x, sizeof(type) for values/write to file chars for x and y
os.write((char*)&x, sizeof(int)); //only sizeof(int) starting at &x
os.write((char*)&y, sizeof(float)); //cast as a char pointer
os.write(str.data(), sizeof(char)*str.size()); //write str data
os.close();
//the file test.txt will now have binary data in it
//to read it back in, just ifstream, and put that info in new containers, like this;
int in_x = 0; //new containters set to 0 for debug
float in_y = 0;
char inchar[20]; //buffer to write 20 chars to
ifstream is("test.txt", std::ios::in | std::ios::binary); //read in binary
is.read((char*)&in_x, sizeof(int)); //write to new containers
is.read((char*)&in_y, sizeof(float));
is.read((char*)&inchar, sizeof(char)*20); //write char assuming 20 size
is.close();
//outputting will show the values are correctly read into the new containers
cout << in_x << endl;
cout << in_y << endl;
cout << inchar << endl;

Answer 2

I realize this is probably very stupid and not done this way whatsoever!
The entire software industry was stupid enough to have it done so many times that even a special term was invented for this operation - serialization and nearly all C++ frameworks and libraries have implemented this in a various ways.
Since question is tagged with C++ I would suggest you to look at boost serialization but there are many other implementations.
Do you need that file to be readable by a human? If yes than consider, for example, XML or JSON formats.
You don't need it be readable but want it be as compact as possible? Consider google protobuf
Just start doing it and come with a more specific question(s).
As it was mentioned before, keep strings as std:string objects rather then char*
About writing/reading to/from files in C++ read about fstream