Storing a variable in C++ - c++

Question

The problem is that file won't be read...Apparently there's a problem with an array but I don't really know how fix this issue...I'm a beginner to C++ 'arrays' and 'strings'...
My file should read the code, then translate the file, then output the text into a new file..
#include <iostream>
#include <iomanip>
#include <string>
#include <sstream>
#include <fstream>
#include <math.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string>
#include <string.h>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
// Declarations
string reply;
string inputFileName;
ifstream inputFile;
ofstream outFile;
char character;
cout << "Input file name: ";
getline(cin, inputFileName);
// Open the input file.
inputFile.open(inputFileName.c_str());
// Check the file opened successfully.
if ( ! inputFile.is_open()) {
cout << "Unable to open input file." << endl;
cout << "Press enter to continue...";
getline(cin, reply);
return 1;
}
// This section reads and echo's the file one character (byte) at a time.
while (inputFile.peek() != EOF) {
inputFile.get(character);
//cout << character;
//Don't display the file...
char cipher[sizeof(character)];
//Caesar Cipher code...
int shift;
do {
cout << "enter a value between 1-26 to encrypt the text: ";
cin >> shift;
}
while ((shift <1) || (shift >26));
int size = strlen(character);
int i=0;
for(i=0; i<size; i++)
{
cipher[i] = character[i];
if (islower(cipher[i])) {
cipher[i] = (cipher[i]-'a'+shift)%26+'a';
}
else if (isupper(cipher[i])) {
cipher[i] = (cipher[i]-'A'+shift)%26+'A';
}
}
cipher[size] = '\0';
cout << cipher << endl;
}
cout << "\nEnd of file reached\n" << endl;
// Close the input file stream
inputFile.close();
cout << "Press enter to continue...";
getline(cin, reply);
return 0;
}

Answer 1

To make it short: You're on c++ so just don't use the whole C stuff.
Don't use character arrays, use std::string
Don't use islower(char) but use std::islower(char,locale)
Don't use C-style arrays but std::array (compile time constant size) or std::vector (dynamic size)
You'll want to have it more like this:
#include <string>
#include <fstream>
#include <iostream>
#include <stdexcept>
#include <locale>
int main (void)
{
std::string input_filename;
std::cout << "Input file name: ";
std::getline(std::cin, input_filename);
unsigned int shift;
do
{
std::cout << "Enter a value between 1-26 to encrypt the text: ";
std::cin >> shift;
}
while ((shift == 0) || (shift > 26));
try
{
std::string filestring;
std::ifstream input(input_filename, std::ios_base::in);
if (input)
{
input.seekg(0, std::ios::end);
filestring.reserve(input.tellg());
input.seekg(0, std::ios::beg);
filestring.assign
(std::istreambuf_iterator<char>(input),
std::istreambuf_iterator<char>());
}
else
{
std::string error_string("Reading failed for: \"");
error_string.append(input_filename);
error_string.append("\"");
throw std::runtime_error(error_string);
}
std::string result;
result.reserve(filestring.size());
std::locale const loc;
for (auto character : filestring)
{
char const shifter(std::islower(character, loc) ? 'a' : 'A');
result.push_back((character-shifter+shift)%26+shifter);
}
std::cout << result << std::endl;
}
catch (std::exception & e)
{
std::cout << "Execution failed with an exception: " << std::endl;
std::cout << e.what() << std::endl;
}
}
This solution requires C++11 support. If you do not have C++11 you can replace the loop with:
size_t const N(filestring.length());
for (size_t i(0u); i<N; ++i)
{
char const shifter(std::islower(filestring[i], loc) ? 'a' : 'A');
result.push_back((filestring[i]-shifter+shift)%26+shifter);
}

Answer 2

From looking at your code, "character" is declared as a char which means it can only store one byte of information. Yet later on you start using it as if it was an array of characters.
You are also declare "cipher" as a char array that you manual manage like a string which is error prone. The real issue however is that you're mixing C-like code in C++. In other words, the way your code is written isn't considered idiomatic C++.
Pixelchemist already went over the important points so I'll just present a minimal refactored working example of your above code:
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <fstream>
#include <stdlib.h>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
string filename;
cout << "enter input file: ";
cin >> filename;
ifstream inputFile( filename.c_str() );
string plaintext;
do
{
plaintext += inputFile.get();
}while(inputFile);
cout << plaintext << endl;
string &ciphertext = plaintext;
//Caesar Cipher code...
int shift = rand() % 26 + 1;
for(size_t i = 0; i < ciphertext.size(); ++i)
{
if (islower(ciphertext[i])) {
ciphertext[i] = (ciphertext[i] - 'a' + shift) % 26 + 'a';
}
else if (isupper(ciphertext[i])) {
ciphertext[i] = (ciphertext[i] - 'A' + shift) % 26 + 'A';
}
}
cout << ciphertext << endl;
}
You'll notice in the refactor that I've done away with char and char[] arrays altogether and replaced it with std::string. I'm also performing the cipher operation inplace on the plaintext input. This is done by making a reference alias to plaintext called ciphertext for readability. Also in my example, the shift is done randomly for prototyping but you should change it to take it as a user input instead.

Answer 3

You are working with a single char, thats e.g. just one letter or a number. So the whole thing with size handling is useless, because the size is always 1. You probably should use const char*. But then you can't use filestream.get() at all, because it only returns a single char (not and cstring aka const char*).
And you can use fstream.get() as condition for the loop, so you don't need to ask for the eof flag.
char my_char;
std::ifstream infstream("filename.txt");
if(!infstream.isopen())
return -1;
while(infstream.get(my_char) {
//do some stuff
}
or
std::string my_string;
std::ifstream infstream("filename.txt");
if(!infstream.isopen())
return -1;
while(infstream >> my_string) {
//do some stuff
}
for dynamic arrays in C++ use std::vector or std::list or ... one of the other STL containers, so you don't have to waste your time on memory management and using static sized arrays.
And std::string is the way to go for strings in C++. It is something similar to the STL containers, but just for char's.