File input

For your projects you’ll need to be able to read data from a file. Here’s a primer on reading data from plain text and CSV files, including CSV values with quoted fields.

Resources

• albums.csv
• CMakeLists.txt
• file_input.pdf
• file_input_code_and_data.zip
• read_albums.cpp
• read_states.cpp
• read_wasteland.cpp
• states.csv
• wasteland.txt

Additional reading

• http://www.cplusplus.com/doc/tutorial/files/
• http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/fstream/ifstream/
• http://umich.edu/~eecs381/handouts/filestreams.pdf

Comprehension check

1. We use a(n) ________________________________________________ object to read from files.
2. True or false? We should never explicitly close our input file(s) when we’re done reading.
3. A common practice is to use a(n) ______________ loop to iterate through our input file.
4. Two ways of getting data from a file are the ____________________ function and the ___________________ operator.
5. In a CSV file, a field is quoted if it contains ________________ as data.
6. The istream::peek() method will read a character but will not ___________________ it.

Answers: ʇɔɐɹʇxǝ / sɐɯɯoɔ / >> uoᴉʇɔɐɹʇxǝ ’()ǝuᴉlʇǝƃ::pʇs / ǝlᴉɥʍ / ǝslɐɟ / ɯɐǝɹʇsɟᴉ::pʇs

Another example

Here’s another example of file input, in case you find it helpful.

• Book.h
• books.cpp
• books.csv

Original author: Clayton Cafiero < [given name] DOT [surname] AT uvm DOT edu >

No generative AI was used in producing this material. This was written the old-fashioned way.

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