So I'm having trouble understanding files in C++ - c++

Question

I just started learning files and I understand how to set it up and get it to work. I have to write this program where I have to allow the user to enter some information and have the user also update and adjust any data, using binary.
So I can write up until the point where the user can write to and read from the file. But I don't know how to let the user adjust data or add data.
#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;
class client {
public:
string name;
int balance;
string id;
};
int main()
{
int ans;
int x;
string nameIn;
string adjName;
client client1;
ofstream out("client1.dat", ios::binary);
cout << "\nDo you want to add information or update info" << endl;
cin >> ans;
if (ans == 1)
{
cout << "\nPlease enter the name of your client" << endl;
cin >> nameIn;
x = nameIn.length();
if (x <= 10)
{
for (int i; i < 10; i++)
{
adjName[i] = nameIn[i];
}
}
else
{
for (int i = x; i < 10; i++)
{
adjName[i] = ' ';
}
}
client1.name = adjName;
cout << "\nPlease enter the balance of your client" << endl;
cin >> client1.balance;
cout << "\nPlease enter the id of your client" << endl;
cin >> client1.id;
cout << "\nThe name of your client is " << endl << client1.name
<< endl << "\nThe balance of your client is " << endl
<< client1.balance << endl << "\nThe id of your client is "
<< endl << client1.id;
out.write(reinterpret_cast<const char*> (&client1), sizeof(client));
}
/*
else if (ans == 2)
{
string answer, newName,line;
cout << "\nWhat name do you want to update? " << endl;
cin >> answer;
cout << "\nWhat is the new name?" << endl;
cin >> newName;
if (out)
}
*/
system("pause");
return 0;
}
so the name needs to be only 10 characters long, so that we can adjust/update it. It compiles and runs, but every time the compiler gets to the part where it checks the name length, it freaks out and says "debug assertion failed"
string subscript out of range.
Also a thing about this code-- if i run it without the bits where you adjust the name to a certain array length, the program runs, and stores everything nicely. But when I try to read back the .dat, it reads it back but exits with an access violation, forcing me to manually stop the debugging. What am I doing wrong?
this is the code for reading the file
#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;
class client {
public:
string name;
int balance;
string id;
};
int main()
{
client client1;
char ans;
cout << "\nDo you want to view the information about your client?"
<< endl;
cin >> ans;
ifstream in("client1.dat", ios::binary);
if (ans == 'y' || ans == 'Y')
{
in.read(reinterpret_cast<char*> (&client1), sizeof(client));
cout << "The name is " << endl << client1.name << endl
<< "The balance is " << endl << client1.balance << endl
<< "The id is " << endl << client1.id << endl;
}
system("pause");
return 0;
}

Answer 1

As for the 1st part:
for (int i; i < 10; i++)
// ^
misses to initialize i to zero. Also what if the input was smaller than 10 characters? You're going to access the std::string out of bounds. You should replace the if/else and loops with simply
adjName = nameIn;
while(adjName.length() <= 10) {
adjName += ' ';
}
to get rid of the debug assertion.
For the 2nd part of the question, as already mentioned in the comments you cannot do this with a structure containing classes like std::string.
The reinterpret_cast<char*> (&client1) just obfuscates that std::string uses a pointer to the dynamically allocated character data internally, and that cannot be restored meaningfully when reading the stored data back later (hence the access violation you get).
A viable way might be to use something like
struct client {
char name[11];
int balance;
char id[5];
};
As I guess you need to do this for a homework exercise, and for this purpose that would probably be sufficient.
But you quickly can see the drawbacks, that the character data needs to be fixed in size and you cannot have arbitrary length strings. I never would use such for production ready code.
Another pitfall (as also mentioned) is, that int isn't represented in the same way (order of bytes used, i.e. endianess) in the same way for different CPU architectures. So the binary file can't be used portably with different computers.
The simplest solution is not to use a binary file, but a text formatted file and overload the std::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream&, const client&) and std::istream& operator>>(std::istream&, client&) output/input operators.
Or use some 3rd party library like boost::serialization or google protocol buffers, that supports de-/serialization to binary files.