C++ Address Book Array and Textfile - c++

Question

Sorry for the lack of previous explanation to my school's assignment. Here's what I'm working with and what I have / think I have to do.
I have the basic structure for populating the address book inside an array, however, the logic behind populating a text file is a bit beyond my knowledge. I've researched a few examples, however, the implementation is a bit tricky due to my novice programming ability.
I've gone through some code that looks relevant in regard to my requirements:
ifstream input("addressbook.txt");
ofstream out("addressbook.txt");
For ifstream, I believe implementing this into the voidAddBook::AddEntry() would work, though I've tried it and the code failed to compile, for multiple reasons.
For ostream, I'm lost and unsure as to how I can implement this correctly. I understand basic file input and output into a text file, however, this method is a bit more advanced and hence why I'm resorting to stackoverflow's guidance.
#include <iostream>
#include <string.h> //Required to use string compare
using namespace std;
class AddBook{
public:
AddBook()
{
count=0;
}
void AddEntry();
void DispAll();
void DispEntry(int i); // Displays one entry
void SearchLast();
int Menu();
struct EntryStruct
{
char FirstName[15];
char LastName[15];
char Birthday[15];
char PhoneNum[15];
char Email[15];
};
EntryStruct entries[100];
int count;
};
void AddBook::AddEntry()
{
cout << "Enter First Name: ";
cin >> entries[count].FirstName;
cout << "Enter Last Name: ";
cin >> entries[count].LastName;
cout << "Enter Date of Birth: ";
cin >> entries[count].Birthday;
cout << "Enter Phone Number: ";
cin >> entries[count].PhoneNum;
cout << "Enter Email: ";
cin >> entries[count].Email;
++count;
}
void AddBook::DispEntry(int i)
{
cout << "First name : " << entries[i].FirstName << endl;
cout << "Last name : " << entries[i].LastName << endl;
cout << "Date of birth : " << entries[i].Birthday << endl;
cout << "Phone number : " << entries[i].PhoneNum << endl;
cout << "Email: " << entries[i].Email << endl;
}
void AddBook::DispAll()
{
cout << "Number of entries : " << count << endl;
for(int i = 0;i < count;++i)
DispEntry(i);
}
void AddBook::SearchLast()
{
char lastname[32];
cout << "Enter last name : ";
cin >> lastname;
for(int i = 0;i < count;++i)
{
if(strcmp(lastname, entries[i].LastName) == 0)
{
cout << "Found ";
DispEntry(i);
cout << endl;
}
}
}
AddBook AddressBook;
int Menu()
{
int num;
bool BoolQuit = false;
while(BoolQuit == false)
{
cout << "Address Book Menu" << endl;
cout << "(1) Add A New Contact" << endl;
cout << "(2) Search By Last Name" << endl;
cout << "(3) Show Complete List" << endl;
cout << "(4) Exit And Save" << endl;
cout << endl;
cout << "Please enter your selection (1-4) and press enter: ";
cin >> num;
cout << endl;
if (num == 1)
AddressBook.AddEntry();
else if (num == 2)
AddressBook.SearchLast();
else if (num == 3)
AddressBook.DispAll();
else if (num == 4)
BoolQuit = true;
else
cout << "Please enter a number (1-4) and press enter: " << endl;
cout << endl;
}
return 0;
}
int main (){
Menu();
return 0;
}
As it currently stands, I'm still stuck. Here's where I believe I should start:
cout << "Please enter your selection (1-4) and press enter: ";
cin >> num;
cout << endl;
if (num == 1)
AddressBook.AddEntry();
else if (num == 2)
AddressBook.SearchLast();
else if (num == 3)
AddressBook.DispAll();
else if (num == 4)
BoolQuit = true;
//save first name
//save last name
//save dob
//save phone number
//save email
//exit
else
cout << "Please enter a number (1-4) and press enter: " << endl;
cout << endl;
}
Somehow, during menu option 4 the array should dump the data into a .txt file and arrange it in a way that it can be easily imported upon reloading the program. I'm a little confused as to how I can store the array data from each character array into a .txt file.

Answer 1

Well first, if the input is coming from the file input, then instead of doing cin >> x you would have to do input >> x. If it's coming from standard input (the keyboard), then you can use cin.
Also, your else if statement should be something like this:
while (true)
{
// ...
else if (num == 4)
{
for (int i = 0; i < AddressBook.count; ++i)
{
AddBook::EntryStruct data = AddressBook.entries[i];
out << data.FirstName << " " << data.LastName
<< std::endl
<< data.Birthday << std::endl
<< data.PhoneNum << std::endl
<< data.Email;
}
}
break;
}