Error Catching Question

[closed account 3R5fjE8b]

In this constructor I am loading descriptions/area names from files, is this an effective way of error checking? I want to make sure that if for some reason there is an empty space in the text file or an error in loading, that it stops.
Feedback/criticism/props are welcome :)

#include "board.h"
#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>

board::board()
{
	std::ifstream load_description("map/description.txt");
	std::ifstream load_name("map/name.txt");
	
	if ( load_name.fail() || load_description.fail() )
	{
		std::cout << "An error loading necessary files has occurred, please close application and contact the designer." << std::endl;
	}
	else
	{
		for ( int x = 0; x < board_upper_limit; x++ )
		{
			for ( int y = 0; y < board_upper_limit; y++ )
			{
				std::string temp = "Default";
				load_name >> temp;
				
				if ( temp == "Default" || temp == "" )
				{
					std::cout << "An error loading necessary files has occurred, please close application and contact the designer." << std::endl;
				}
				else
				{
					game_board[x][y].set_name(temp);
				}
				
				temp = "Default";
				getline(load_description, temp);
				
				if ( temp == "Default" || temp == "" )
				{
					std::cout << "An error loading necessary files has occurred, please close application and contact the designer." << std::endl;
				}
				else
				{
					game_board[x][y].set_description(temp);
				}
			}
		}
		load_name.close();
		load_description.close();
	}
}

[TwilightSpectre]

In this case, it looks like you want to use exceptions. They also allow you to 'catch' the exception and handle the error. For example:

// Using default exceptions - you could make your own, but that gets complicated.
#include <stdexcept>

board::board() {
    std::ifstream load_description;
    std::ifstream load_name;

    // set the files to throw exceptions on 'bad' circumstances
    load_description.exceptions(std::ifstream::failbit | std::ifstream::badbit);
    load_name.exceptions(std::ifstream::failbit | std::ifstream::badbit);

    load_description.open("map/description.txt");
    load_name.open("map/name.txt");

    for (int x = 0; x < board_upper_limit; ++x) {
        for (int y = 0; y < board_upper_limit; ++y) {
            std::string temp; // this gets overwritten regardless

            load_name >> temp;
            if (temp.empty())
                throw std::runtime_error("Couldn't get board name!");
            game_board[x][y].set_name(temp);

            std::getline(load_description, temp);
            if (temp.empty())
                throw std::runtime_error("Couldn't get board description!");
            game_board[x][y].set_description(temp);
        }
    }

    // files close themselves here
}

Then you can see what happens when loading the board with a try...catch block, like so:

#include "board.h"
#include <exception> // catch all generic exceptions

int main() {
    try {
        board b; // create an instance of the board
        // use the board here
    }
    catch (const std::exception& e) {
        std::cerr << "Exception caught: " << e.what();
        return 1; // return an error
    }

    // ...

    return 0;
}