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Closed 10 years ago.
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Reading from text file until EOF repeats last line
The cout output from my c++ program, prints to console but overlaps.
For instance:
while(pFile.good()){
getline (pFile, pLine);
cout<<pLine;
}
This code, prints the last line, and some leftovers of the previous line.
I'm using vi on cygwin. This happened out of the blue. Did I change some setting?
getline() discards any newline character it encounters. To keep your code from merging all lines together into one big line, you need to do this instead:
cout << pLine << endl;
As chris pointed out, you also should use getline() as your while condition. Otherwise, the stream may be considered "good" now, but reach EOF when you call getline(). So try this loop:
while (getline(pFile, pLine)) {
cout << pLine << endl;
}
The reason your last line is printed twice is because your last call to getline() failed, but you still printed pLine (even though its content is undefined).
while(pFile.good()){
getline (pFile, pLine); // What happens if this line fails.
// Like when you read **past** the end of file.
cout<<pLine;
}
The correct version of your code is:
while(pFile.good()){
if (getline (pFile, pLine))
{ cout<<pLine;
}
}
But this is usually written as:
while(getline (pFile, pLine))
{
// The loop is only entered if the read worked.
cout<<pLine;
}
Remember that the last successful call to getline() reads up-to but not past the end of line. That mean the next call to getline() will fail and set the EOF bit.
Also note that your output is stinging together because you are not adding a '\n' seporator between your lines. Note: the getline() reads upto the next '\n' character but this termination character is not added to the string pLine.
here u are writing at sameline because getline simply discards new line character,thats why u have to write <<endl
while(pFile.good()){
getline (pFile, pLine);
cout<<pLine<<endl;
}
Related
I wrote the following C++ program to read a text file line by line and print out the content of the file line by line. I entered the name of the text file as the only command line argument into the command line.
#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
using namespace std;
int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
char buf[255] = {};
if (argc != 2)
{
cout << "Invalid number of files." << endl;
return 1;
}
ifstream f(argv[1], ios::in | ios::binary);
if (!f)
{
cout << "Error: Cannot open file." << endl;
return 1;
}
while (!f.eof())
{
f.get(buf,255);
cout << buf << endl;
}
f.close();
return 0;
}
However, when I ran this code in Visual Studio, the Debug Console was completely blank. What's wrong with my code?
Apart from the errors mentioned in the comments, the program has a logical error because istream& istream::get(char* s, streamsize n) does not do what you (or I, until I debugged it) thought it does. Yes, it reads to the next newline; but it leaves the newline in the input!
The next time you call get(), it will see the newline immediately and return with an empty line in the buffer, for ever and ever.
The best way to fix this is to use the appropriate function, namely istream::getline() which extracts, but does not store the newline.
The EOF issue
is worth mentioning. The canonical way to read lines (if you want to write to a character buffer) is
while (f.getline(buf, bufSz))
{
cout << buf << "\n";
}
getline() returns a reference to the stream which in turn has a conversion function to bool, which makes it usable in a boolean expression like this. The conversion is true if input could be obtained. Interestingly, it may have encountered the end of file, and f.eof() would be true; but that alone does not make the stream convert to false. As long as it could extract at least one character it will convert to true, indicating that the last input operation made input available, and the loop will work as expected.
The next read after encountering EOF would then fail because no data could be extracted: After all, the read position is still at EOF. That is considered a read failure. The condition is wrong and the loop is exited, which was exactly the intent.
The buffer size issue
is worth mentioning, as well. The standard draft says in 30.7.4.3:
Characters are extracted and stored until one of the following occurs:
end-of-file occurs on the input sequence (in which case the function calls setstate(eofbit));
traits::eq(c, delim) for the next available input character c
(in which case the input character
is extracted but not stored);
n is less than one or n - 1 characters are stored
(in which case the function calls setstate(
failbit)).
The conditions are tested in that order, which means that if n-1 characters have been stored and the next character is a newline (the default delimiter), the input was successful (and the newline is extracted as well).
This means that if your file contains a single line 123 you can read that successfully with f.getline(buf, 4), but not a line 1234 (both may or may not be followed by a newline).
The line ending issue
Another complication here is that on Windows a file created with a typical editor will have a hidden carriage return before the newline, i.e. a line actually looks like "123\r\n" ("\r" and "\n" each being a single character with the values 13 and 10, respectively). Because you opened the file with the binary flag the program will see the carriage return; all lines will contain that "invisible" character, and the number of visible characters fitting in the buffer will be one shorter than one would assume.
The console issue ;-)
Oh, and your Console was not entirely empty; it's just that modern computers are too fast and the first line which was probably printed (it was in my case) scrolled away faster than anybody could switch windows. When I looked closely there was a cursor in the bottom left corner where the program was busy printing line after line of nothing ;-).
The conclusion
Debug your programs. It's very easy with VS.
Use getline(istream, string).
Use the return value of input functions (typically the stream)
as a boolean in a while loop: "As long as you can extract any input, use that input."
Beware of line ending issues.
Consider C I/O (printf, scanf) for anything non-trivial (I didn't discuss this in my answer but I think that's what many people do).
With the code below, I want the user to write a text in the terminal, and then print out the last sentence of the text. Maybe I should mention that I'm running on a Linux desktop.
#include <string>
#include <iostream>
int main()
{
std::string user_text{};
while(std::getline(std::cin, user_text))
{
}
std::cout << "Text: " << user_text << std::endl;
return 0;
}
Anyways if I, after running the program, write for example:
Hi my name is
And then press 'ctrl+d', the output will indeed be "Text: Hi my name is"
However if I instead do this:
Hi my name is 'press enter'
Name my is hi 'press enter'
And then press 'ctrl+d'. The output will be "Text: ". Why is this? Shouldn't getline stop when I have pressed 'ctrl+d'?
Thanks in advance!
std::getline() erases the output std::string before attempting to read from the stream.
In your second case, the first 2 calls to std::getline() have already read everything you have typed in, there is nothing left when you press CTRL-D during the 3rd call, so there is nothing for std::getline() to output into the std::string.
Save the last successful line read to a separate variable, eg:
std::string user_text, line;
while(std::getline(std::cin, line))
{
user_text = line;
}
std::cout << "Text: " << user_text << std::endl;
std::getline is working as intended: it's getting a line. If you press enter, it creates a new, empty line; if you then press ctrl+d, you're terminating std::getline, which returns that (empty) line's contents.
From the docs:
getline reads characters from an input stream and places them into a string:
Behaves as UnformattedInputFunction, except that input.gcount() is not affected. After constructing and checking the sentry object, performs the following:
Calls str.erase()
Extracts characters from input and appends them to str until one of the following occurs (checked in the order listed)
a) end-of-file condition on input, in which case, getline sets eofbit.
b) the next available input character is delim, as tested by Traits::eq(c, delim), in which case the delimiter character is extracted from input, but is not appended to str.
c) str.max_size() characters have been stored, in which case getline sets failbit and returns.
If no characters were extracted for whatever reason (not even the discarded delimiter), getline sets failbit and returns.
Same as getline(input, str, input.widen('\n')), that is, the default delimiter is the endline character.
Ctrl+D causes the process's read from the terminal to return immediately. If you press Ctrl+D after typing: Hi my name is, the process will read: Hi my name is. getline will not find a \n and will restart reading. Then you press Ctrl+D a second time (you didn't say it but I am sure you did). And this will interrupt the read, causing it to return 0, which is as-if the terminal was closed. getline will then return the current value: Hi my name is.
In the second case, you haven't typed anything since the last \n, so when you press Ctrl+D, read directly returns 0 and getline returns with an empty string.
This question already has answers here:
Read whole ASCII file into C++ std::string [duplicate]
(9 answers)
Closed 9 years ago.
I have this function that reads the text from a file and adds it to a string, now the weird thing is that it works fine if its a short text. But if its a longer text the string becomes empty, any help solving this problem is appreciated.
string inlasning(string namn)
{
string filString, temp;
ifstream filen(namn.c_str());
if(!filen.good())
{
cout << "Otillganglig fil" << endl;
filString = "ERROR";
return filString;
}
else
{
while(!filen.eof())
getline(filen, temp);
filString.append(temp);
}
filen.close();
return filString;
}
1) Don't use eof() to control the loop. Put getline directly into the loop condition. Search StackOverflow if you have problems doing this.
2) Your while loop has no braces and thus only covers the getline line, despite your misleading indentation.
3) getline discards newlines. Your final string will be wrong.
4) The actual behavior you're observing comes from the fact that you only append the very last thing that getline returns to your string. When your file contains one line of text and doesn't end in a newline, this will seem to work. If it has more lines but doesn't end in a newline, you'll only get the last line. If the file does end in a newline, because of your incorrect loop condition the last call to getline will actually give you an empty string, which will be exactly the contents of your string.
Replace
while(!filen.eof())
getline(filen, temp);
filString.append(temp);
with
while(!filen.eof())
{
getline(filen, temp);
filString.append(temp);
}
Use "is_open()" to check if the file exists:
if( ! filen.is_open() ){...} // you don't need an else clause
...And your while loop must has braces or it will only execute the getline(...) instruction:
while( filen.good() ) {
getline( filen , temp );
filString += ( temp + '\n' );
}
If your file doesn't ends with '\n', remove the last char from the string
This question already has answers here:
What's preferred pattern for reading lines from a file in C++?
(5 answers)
Closed 9 years ago.
The code is:
ifstream fin("D://abc.txt", ios::in);
string line;
while ( fin ) {
getline( fin, line );
cout << line << endl;
}
The text file is:
hi, I am Eric!
hi, I am Jack!
And the output is
hi, I am Eric!
hi, I am Jack!
hi, I am Jack!
And when I change the condition to !fin.eof(), output is correct. Is eof a valid state of ifstream ?
It's because the state is not changed until after the std::getline function fails. This means that you read the first two lines correctly, but then the state isn't changed so you enter the loop again, but now the std::getline call fails but you don't check for it, and it's also now that the eof flag is set.
You should do e.g.
while (std::getline(...))
{
// ...
}
The eof state is only reached once you try reading past the end of the stream. The getline call that reads the last line from your file does not do so (it reads up until the newline). But the getline call in the next iteration of the loop will reach the end of the file.
A better way to read every line in the file is :
while (getline(fin, line)) {
cout << line << endl;
}
The usage
while(fin)
is not good. it will check the value of fin, not whether fin reaches the end.
you may check this page:
http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/string/string/getline/
when you finish the second call of function getline, the pointer fin not point to NULL, so you go into the third process in while, the third time you call
getline(fin,line);
it meet the eof of fin, so fin change state, then you won't go to the forth call, but since you didn't clear the value of
line
so it will also print
hi, I am Jack!
I'm a bit confused by the results of the following function:
int main() {
string command;
while(1) {
cin >> command;
if(command == "end")
return 0;
else
cout << "Could you repeat the command?" << endl;
}
return 0;
}
First of all - the output line ("could you...") repeats once for each individual word in the input (stored in command). So far as I can see, it should only be possible for it to happen once for each instance of the loop.
Also, when the line 'if(command == "end")' is changed to 'if(command == "that's all")' it never triggers. A little testing suggested that all of the whitespace was removed from the command.
Could someone explain to me what's going on here?
Thanks
The formatted input operator >>() reads space separated tokens from input. If you want to read whole lines, use the getline() function:
string command;
getline( cin, command );
Most (possibly all) operating systems buffer input. When you type a string of words and then hit [enter] it is only at the time you hit enter that the input is usually passed to your program. Thus that is when it will start reading the input and separating it out into individual words (because as Neil mentions, the >> reads words, not lines). Thus your program goes through the loop multiple times (once per word you had in the line) even though you only hit enter once.
So, you are correct when you think it should only display "could you..." once per loop. That is what is happening.
Likewise, you'll never have a command that contains more than one word because of the space delimiter. As mentioned, use getline() to retrieve the entire text for the line you entered.