reading delimited text files?

[gasfusion]

I have a file that looks like this:
string string 0 1 34
string string 0 4 5 8 3 4

the 2nd number from the left shows how many numbers are going to follow it.
i.e. on the 2nd line, 4 has 5 8 3 4.

Does anybody know a way to read the file? I'm trying to read it and put the data in a two dimensional array. What i have is the following function:

//---------------------------------------------------------
// This function takes student data file and reads the
// data in the two dimensional array for further processing
//---------------------------------------------------------
int stdLoadData(ifstream &ifile, string stdArray[][11]) {
    string firstName, lastName, studentID, numOfCourses, course1, course2, course3, course4, course5, course6;
    int j = 0;
    string temp;
 
    while (!ifile.eof()) {
        getline(ifile,firstName,' ');
        stdArray[j][stdFirstName] = firstName;
        getline(ifile,lastName,' ');
        stdArray[j][stdLastName] = lastName;
        getline(ifile,studentID,' ' );
        stdArray[j][stdStudentID] = studentID;
        getline(ifile,numOfCourses, ' ');
        stdArray[j][stdNumOfCourses] = numOfCourses;
 
        if (numOfCourses == "1") { 
               getline(ifile,course1);
               stdArray[j][stdCourse1] = course1;
        } else if (numOfCourses == "2") {
                getline(ifile,course1, ' ');
                stdArray[j][stdCourse1] = course1;
               getline(ifile,course2);
                stdArray[j][stdCourse2] = course2;
        } else if (numOfCourses == "3") {
                getline(ifile,course1, ' ');
                stdArray[j][stdCourse1] = course1;
                getline(ifile,course2, ' ');
                stdArray[j][stdCourse2] = course2;
                getline(ifile,course3);
                stdArray[j][stdCourse3] = course3;
        } else if (numOfCourses == "4") {
                getline(ifile,course1, ' ');
                stdArray[j][stdCourse1] = course1;
                getline(ifile,course2, ' ');
                stdArray[j][stdCourse2] = course2;
                getline(ifile,course3, ' ');
                stdArray[j][stdCourse3] = course3;
                getline(ifile,course4);
                stdArray[j][stdCourse4] = course4;
        } else if (numOfCourses == "5") {
                getline(ifile,course1, ' ');
                stdArray[j][stdCourse1] = course1;
                getline(ifile,course2, ' ');
                stdArray[j][stdCourse2] = course2;
                getline(ifile,course3, ' ');
                stdArray[j][stdCourse3] = course3;
                getline(ifile,course4, ' ');
                stdArray[j][stdCourse4] = course4;
                getline(ifile,course5);
                stdArray[j][stdCourse5] = course5;
        } else if (numOfCourses == "6") {
                getline(ifile,course1, ' ');
                stdArray[j][stdCourse1] = course1;
                getline(ifile,course2, ' ');
                stdArray[j][stdCourse2] = course2;
                getline(ifile,course3, ' ');
                stdArray[j][stdCourse3] = course3;
                getline(ifile,course4, ' ');
                stdArray[j][stdCourse4] = course4;
                getline(ifile,course5, ' ');
                stdArray[j][stdCourse5] = course5;
                getline(ifile,course6);
                stdArray[j][stdCourse6] = course6;
        }
    j++;
    }
    return j;
}
 

which works unless the numOfCourses variable which is the 2nd number on every row, is 0. Then, since there is nothing after it, it doesn't take it as the end of line and read the 1st field from the next line.
Is there a way to fix that?
Thank you!