getline argument error

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February 27th, 2005, 04:34 PM

seanghatch

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Join Date: Dec 2004

Posts: 64

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getline argument error

I'm making a small program to read a text file to the console window, and I want to see the spaces so I'm using getline(). When I compile I get this error

c:\Documents and Settings\Sean\My Documents\Visual Studio Projects\lines\readin.cpp(20): error C2664: 'std::basic_istream<_Elem,_Traits>::_Myt &std::basic_istream<_Elem,_Traits>::getline(_Elem *,std::streamsize)' : cannot convert parameter 1 from 'std::ifstream' to 'char *'
with
[
_Elem=char,
_Traits=std::char_traits<char>
]

Code:


#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;

  int main()
    {
		

        string Spaces;
		int close;
		ifstream a;
		
		cout << "Make sure your file is named dict.txt.\n";
		
		a.open("dict.txt");
        while(!a.eof())
        {
              a.getline(a,Spaces);
              cout << Spaces;
        }        
		
		a.close();
        
		cout <<endl;
		cout << "\n\nfile read complete!\n";
		cin >> close;

        return 0;
    }

does anyone know what the deal is?

February 27th, 2005, 04:37 PM

AsymptoticCoder

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Location: Southern California, USA

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I believe you need to swap your parameters in the getline function.

getline(char * where to store data, what you are reading from);

Also, I think you need to store the data in a char *, not a string.

February 27th, 2005, 04:57 PM

DaWei_M

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You can read the data into a string. There is more than one 'getline.' I recommend the string class overloaded one for strings. Refer to your documentation for correct usage. I would suggest that advising your user to make sure he/she names the correct file is no substitute for checking the open operation to ensure it succeeded prior to making an attempt to read it. I would also suggest you condition your while test on a.good () as more things can happen than just end of file. Along those lines, one needs to think THOROUGHLY about WHEN eof might occur. It may occur during a gathering of data or it may occur prior to the gathering of any data. Disposition of one's storage area is at stake -- a lot of people wind up using the same datum twice or fail to properly use it once.

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getline argument error

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