Basic C++ program, getline()/parsing a file - c++

Question

I've been tasked with creating a small program that is to parse through a text file and grab necessary info from it. The file is laid out as such
Tuesday*Info5051*10:00*11:00*M3039*Info5064*12:00*3:00*G1001;
Basically it's supposed to store each string in a struct so that I can later retrieve it, but I'm unable to get my program to work (I have a learning disability so things tend to get difficult). Here's my code so far. (I know it's a simple program but I tend to overthink/screw up stuff.) My big problem I've hit so far is that it won't open the file to start. I've saved the file to the bin->debug as well as the main folder of the program. I'm sure I'm using the getline method wrong.
struct Course
{
string _sDay;
string _sName;
string _sCode;
string _iStart;
string _iDuration;
string _sRoom;
};
int main()
{
ifstream fileIn;
fileIn.open("courseLoad.txt");
vector<Course> vCourse;
string str="*";
string line;
if (!fileIn)
{
cout<<"A error has occured, please contact support.";
}
while(!fileIn.eof())
{
for(int i=0; i!= fileIn.eof();i++)
{
//file.getline(entry.part_num, 6, '-');
getline(fileIn,line,'*');
vCourse[i]._sDay =line;
getline(fileIn,line,'*');
vCourse[i]._sName =line;
getline(fileIn,line,'*');
vCourse[i]._sCode = line;
getline(fileIn,line,'*');
vCourse[i]._iStart =line;
getline(fileIn,line,'*');
vCourse[i]._iDuration = line;
getline(fileIn,line,'*');
vCourse[i]._sRoom =line;
cout<<vCourse[i];
}//end for
}
--output to screen here--

Answer 1

There are several issue with this code:
1) That code is missing a return statement or an else statement to prevent the program from continuing its execution in case it cannot open the file:
if (!fileIn)
{
cout<<"A error has occured, please contact support.";
return -1;
}
2) Your getline all operate on the same input stream. You want to read in a line, then parse that line. For example:
// Read in a line
while (getline(fileIn,line))
{
string item;
std::stringstream sstr(line);
// Read in an item
while (getline(sstr, item, "*"))
{
std::cout << item << std::endl;
}
}
3) vCourse size is 0, so you cannot use the [] operator; but you can use push_back to expand the size of the vector and insert an element at the back of the vector:
// Read in a line
while (getline(fileIn,line))
{
string item;
// Default course construction
Course c;
std::stringstream sstr(line);
// Read in an item
getline(sstr,item,'*');
c._sDay = item;
getline(sstr,item,'*');
c._sName = item;
getline(sstr,item,'*');
c._sCode = item;
getline(sstr,item,'*');
c._iStart = item;
getline(sstr,item,'*');
c._iDuration = item;
getline(sstr,item,'*');
c._sRoom = item;
// Save the course into the vector
vCourse.push_back(c);
}
You could also add some more error checking in the above (in case some elements are missing from the line).

Answer 2

One immediate problem that is clear is that you are not actually adding any Course structs into your vector but you are assigning to the elements of them as if you are. For example
vCourse[i]._sDay =line;
but you have not actually added an instanct of a Course struct to the vector at index i. This means you assign to an instance that is not present and that is never good news. What you need prior to this is
Course newItem; // make a new Course object instance
vCourse.push_back(newItem); // This adds the instance to the end of the vector
// Now assign to the members of vCourse[i];
vCourse[i]._sDay =line;
getline(fileIn,line,'*');
vCourse[i]._sName =line;
getline(fileIn,line,'*');
vCourse[i]._sCode = line;
getline(fileIn,line,'*');
vCourse[i]._iStart =line;
getline(fileIn,line,'*');
vCourse[i]._iDuration = line;
getline(fileIn,line,'*');
then you can assign to the struct.
Also if you want to do this
cout<<vCourse[i];
you will need to overload the operator<<
If you are unable to open your file, you need to check that you have 1) spelled the filename correctly and 2) that the file is in the same location as your executable. Probably would be safer to write the full pathname anyway

Answer 3

You can also try to put the content of file into single string and use strtok() function.