C++ writing to file error in Linux/Ubuntu? - c++

Question

I have been trying to learn C++ recently, but I have stumbled across some errors. For example, when I try to run this code to ask the user what they want outputted to a file:
#include <iostream>
#include <cstdio>
using namespace std;
main() {
string output; //Declare variables before starting
FILE * file = fopen("newfile.txt","w"); //creates file
cout << "Entire something that you want to be written to the file: " << endl;
cin.getline(output, 256); //Asks what you want to put into file
fprintf(file, output); //Puts output into file
fclose(file); //closes file
return 0;
}
using
g++ -o main test.cpp
I get this error:
test.cpp: In function ‘int main()’:
test.cpp:10:25: error: no matching function for call to ‘std::basic_istream<char>::getline(std::string&, int)’
cin.getline(output, 256);
^
test.cpp:10:25: note: candidates are:
In file included from /usr/include/c++/4.8/iostream:40:0,
from test.cpp:1:
/usr/include/c++/4.8/istream:618:5: note: std::basic_istream<_CharT, _Traits>& std::basic_istream<_CharT, _Traits>::getline(std::basic_istream<_CharT, _Traits>::char_type*, std::streamsize, std::basic_istream<_CharT, _Traits>::char_type) [with _CharT = char; _Traits = std::char_traits<char>; std::basic_istream<_CharT, _Traits>::char_type = char; std::streamsize = long int]
basic_istream<char>::
^
/usr/include/c++/4.8/istream:618:5: note: candidate expects 3 arguments, 2 provided
/usr/include/c++/4.8/istream:427:7: note: std::basic_istream<_CharT, _Traits>::__istream_type& std::basic_istream<_CharT, _Traits>::getline(std::basic_istream<_CharT, _Traits>::char_type*, std::streamsize) [with _CharT = char; _Traits = std::char_traits<char>; std::basic_istream<_CharT, _Traits>::__istream_type = std::basic_istream<char>; std::basic_istream<_CharT, _Traits>::char_type = char; std::streamsize = long int]
getline(char_type* __s, streamsize __n)
^
/usr/include/c++/4.8/istream:427:7: note: no known conversion for argument 1 from ‘std::string {aka std::basic_string<char>}’ to ‘std::basic_istream<char>::char_type* {aka char*}’
test.cpp:11:22: error: cannot convert ‘std::string {aka std::basic_string<char>}’ to ‘const char*’ for argument ‘2’ to ‘int fprintf(FILE*, const char*, ...)’
fprintf(file, output);
^
Could someone please help me? And please forgive me if this is something that can be easily solved, I am fairly new to C++ and do not quite understand it yet.

Answer 1

The header for string is missing:
#include <string>
Without it, sring isn't defined, and everywhere you use output, you'll have errors
With the include you'll have a lot less errors. But this line has another issue (as πάντα ῥεῖ already pointed out):
cin.getline(output, 256);
because cin.getline() expects a char* and the length. If you want to use a string, you have to use the function getline(), without size (limited to strings maximume size) and on an istream:
getline(cin, output);
Last remark: you are of course free to mix c-style io and streams. But you could win from getting used to streams for all your file io.

Answer 2

The error occurs at the line
cin.getline(output, 256);
According to the documentation for std::istream::getline, the first argument for cin.getline() should be a char * and not a std::string as you have declared it.
Try changing the declaration of output to a char * like so
char[256] output;
Edit: Using std::getline as the others have said would be a better idea though.