fstream - not creating files / not appending files / etc.

[Soneji]

*sigh* Ok, I have two questions.

First, my setup: Win-doze XP-SP2; & Dev-C++ 4.9.9.2;

I recently started trying to use 'fstream' to work my input/output, and I noticed that using
the default constructor ( or 'open' method ) will not create a file.

( fstream fstr("hello.dat") or fstr.open("hello.dat") )

I read on a site, that I needed to add these flags:

fstream fstr("hello.dat", ios_base::trunc | ios_base::out | ios_base::in);

This works, but it's long. Anyway, I tried to append to the file by changing 'trunc' to 'app',
and once again, my 'if' statement ran instead of the file being opened. ( code below... )

The ONLY way I can get fstream to work with a file that doesn't exist is the way I posted above.

So, I guess my question is: Why doesn't fstream work like ofstream, and just create the file?
( and does it really matter which you use: fstream or ofstream/ifstream? )

#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
 
int main()
{
  std::fstream fstr("hello.dat", std::ios_base::trunc | std::ios_base::in | std::ios_base::out);
 
  if (!fstr.is_open())
  {
    std::cerr << "ERROR: Could not open file.  Exiting...\n";
    exit(1);
  }
 
  fstr << "Hello from C++\n";
 
  char str1[20], str2[20], str3[20];
 
  fstr.seekg(0, std::ios_base::beg);
 
  fstr >> str1;
  fstr >> str2;
  fstr >> str3;
 
  std::cout << str1 << " " << str2 << " " << str3 << "\n";
 
  fstr.close();
 
  return 0;
}
 

Finally, question number:
2. I've seen different sites use different qualifying names for these flags, and I was wondering
if it matters which I use:

 
fstream::app
ios::app   // I believe this is the old way of using it, isn't it?  Now we've moved to:
ios_base::app
 

I've tested all three methods with different flags, and they all work.
I was just wondering which ones will continue to work later on.

Oh well, I appreciate any help you can give me.

Thanks,

-*Soneji

[Ganon11]

For your first question, ofstream only creates a file because it does not depend on any information contained inside the file. All ofstream does is write to files, so if it creates a new, blank file, this doesn't interfere with writing information to it.

An ifstream cannot create files, because an ifstream is supposed to be reading data. If an ifstream is depending on information contained in a file, it doesn't make very much sense to create an entirely new, blank file - there would be no information to read!

Now, an fstream is like both an ofstream and an ifstream (that is, ifstream and ofstream are subclasses of fstream). That means that, even though an fstream is like an ofstream, it is also like an ifstream. Since you can use an fstream to read information, it doesn't make sense to create a new, blank file to read from - unless you specify that the fstream is for writing only, in which case it should (read: might?) work like an ofstream.

I don't know if there are any benefits to using ofstream/ifstream over fstream or vice versa, but I prefer ofstream/ifstream.

[Soneji]

Ahhh....

That clears up alot of the confusion I had about fstream, but any idea on why:

fstream fstr("hello.dat", ios_base::app | ios_base::out | ios_base::in);

doesn't append the file, but truncates it?

Thanks again,

-&Soneji

[AdrianH]

Ahhh....

That clears up alot of the confusion I had about fstream, but any idea on why:

fstream fstr("hello.dat", ios_base::app | ios_base::out | ios_base::in);

doesn't append the file, but truncates it?

Thanks again,

-&Soneji

Well, it doesn’t seem to on mine, in fact, it doesn't even open a file if it exists under g++. I would hazard a guess that it may be that using append with input isn't a defined function. Making a stream both input and output IMHO doesn't either (have you ever seen a stream of water run both directions in a single pipe?) but that is legacy. I would recommend using separate streams for your input and output, unless there is some compelling reason to do so.

This is the code I used for the test:

#include<iostream>
#include<fstream>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
  fstream fstr;
  fstr.open("hello.dat", ios_base::app | ios_base::out | ios_base::in);
  if (fstr.is_open()) {
    cout << "File open" << endl;
  }
  else {
    cout << "Not open" << endl;
  }
  char buffer[100] = {};
  fstr.getline(buffer, 100);
  cout << "Buffer is: '" << buffer << "'." <<endl;
  fstr.close();
  return 0;
}
 

When I removed the app flag, it worked fine.

BTW, the reason some people used the different scope name for the flags is probably because of programmer preference or it was the way they were taught, It really doesn't matter.

The flags are defined in ios_base and all of the scopes you mentioned and more inherit from it. They all can use the flag, so all are valid. See here for a hierarchy.


Adrian

[Soneji]

Thank you both very much!
You have helped alot.

One more related question though:

Say I make an object to 'fstream', and use it to write to a file.
Ex: myObj.open( ios_base::trunc | ios_base::out );

If I want to read from the same file ( like take other info from it ), do I need to
'close' the file, then make another fstream object, and reopen it for reading?

Or can you change the original object to 'read' also?
( I'm off to try some tests. 8^) )

Ohhh... I didn't even think to look at "CPP.com" for the header that defined the
flags ( constants ).

That's quicker than what I ended up doing once:
The book ( grrr ) told me I would have to include 'cctype' myself. I forgot to
include it one time, and the program still compiled.
So I looked into the ones I did include to see which header included it.
( The path: iostream - ostream/istream - ios - iosfwd - cctype )

Man I love programming. :)

Anyway, Thanks again for the help.

-Soneji

[AdrianH]

Thank you both very much!
You have helped alot.

One more related question though:

Say I make an object to 'fstream', and use it to write to a file.
Ex: myObj.open( ios_base::trunc | ios_base::out );

If I want to read from the same file ( like take other info from it ), do I need to
'close' the file, then make another fstream object, and reopen it for reading?

Or can you change the original object to 'read' also?
( I'm off to try some tests. 8^) )

Ohhh... I didn't even think to look at "CPP.com" for the header that defined the
flags ( constants ).

That's quicker than what I ended up doing once:
The book ( grrr ) told me I would have to include 'cctype' myself. I forgot to
include it one time, and the program still compiled.
So I looked into the ones I did include to see which header included it.
( The path: iostream - ostream/istream - ios - iosfwd - cctype )

Man I love programming. :)

Anyway, Thanks again for the help.

-Soneji

Yes, you can read and write from the same file (as long as the OS opening permisions allow for it, I am not aware of the stream librararies opening for exclusitivity). But be warned, it will not stop you from reading and writing to the same place in the file, which could cause bad things to happen in your programme (think thread/process synchronisation).


Adrian

[Soneji]

Okies, Thanks!

Ohh... Sorry for the rant, I was tired.

Lates,

-Soneji

[AdrianH]

Okies, Thanks!

Ohh... Sorry for the rant, I was tired.

Lates,

-Soneji

Yeah, no prob. L8r. Good luck.


Adrian