reading from a file and storing it in a structure(not properly reading the file) - c++

Question

The problem with my code is that in the while loop, the program is not properly reading the data in the file. If I were to output each individual member of the structure out of the while loop it would output stuff like zero, blank and even random numbers to different members of the structure. This also means that nothing is getting added to the vector because the vector size is zero.
Note 1-I'm using codeblocks as my IDE.
Note 2-The file that I'm using is an excel file. This means that I'm assuming that you've worked with excel files before and that you know that they're lined up in columns and rows. Also, I only want a certain amount of data going to each member in the structure.
Here's a very small sample from my input file.
EVENT_ID CZ_NAME_STR BEGIN_DATE BEGIN_TIME
9991511 MIAMI-DADE CO. 10/18/1955 800
9991516 MIAMI-DADE CO. 4/10/1956 1730
9991517 MIAMI-DADE CO. 4/10/1956 1730
Here's my code
#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <cstdlib>
#include <vector>
#include <string>
using namespace std;
// Structure.
struct Weather_Event
{
int eventID; // is the unique int id associated with the weather event.
string CZ_NAME; // is the location associated with the weather event.
char beginDate[11]; // is the date the event started.
char beginTime[5]; // is the time the event started.
string eventType; // is the type of weather event.
int deaths; // are the number of people killed by the weather.
int injuries; // are the number of people injured by the event.
int propertyDamage; /* is the $ worth of property damage caused
by the event. */
float beginLatitude; // is the starting latitude for the event.
float beginLongitude; // is the starting longitude for the event.
};
int main()
{
// Create an empty vector that will contain the structure.
vector<Weather_Event>weatherInformation(0);
Weather_Event data; /* Create an object to access each member in
the structure. */
// Declare an object and open the file.
ifstream weather("weatherdata.csv");
if(!weather) // Check to see if the file opens.
{
cerr << "Error, opening file. ";
exit(EXIT_FAILURE); // terminate the program early.
}
/* While you're not at the end of the file, keep reading each new
piece of data. */
while(weather >> data.eventID >> data.CZ_NAME >> data.beginDate
>> data.beginTime >> data.eventType >> data.deaths
>> data.injuries >> data.propertyDamage >> data.beginLatitude
>> data.beginLongitude)
{
/* Add all the data that was added to each member of the
structure, into the vector. */
weatherInformation.push_back(data);
}
weather.close();
// Next display the result
for(size_t i=0; i<weatherInformation.size(); i++)
{
cout << "EventID: " << weatherInformation[i].eventID << endl;
}
return 0;
}

Answer 1

For starters, the format of the input doesn't seem to contain all the fields being read. That is, the input contains columns for event ID, name, begin data, and begin time but the code also reads event type, deaths, injuries, property damage, latitude, and longitude. Once this problem is address, you'll run into different other problems, though:
The first line doesn't match the format you are trying to read at all. You'll need to ignore it, e.g., using weather.ignore(std::numeric_limits<std::streamsize>::max(), '\n');
The formatted input operator for string reads a single word. However, your name consists of multiple words, i.e., only the first of these words is read. I don't know if your file contains a suitable separators (e.g. tab characters '\t') you could use to delimit the name or if the name as a fixed length or something. You'll need something to tell the stream where to stop reading the name.
When reading into a char array using the formatted input operators, you should set up a limit for the characters to be read to avoid an overflow: if you don't set up a limit, as many characters as matching the format will be read! That is, you want to read the beginDate and the beginTime using something like this:
weather >> std::setw(sizeof(data.beginDate)) >> data.beginDate
>> std::setw(sizeof(data.beginTime)) >> data.beginTime;
Setting the width limits the amount of data being read. If there are more characters the input will fail rather than overflowing the buffer (if I recall correctly).
These are the problems I spotted based on the code and data you posted.