Is this solution cumbersome?

[closed account 3R5fjE8b]

I have tiles that each four descriptions for leaving the room in that direction, for example if you walked north from x y, show that description. I am trying to load the descriptions from files in an organized manner. I will be adding try/catch blocks for opening the files at a later point. Is this solution here too cumbersome or is there a better way to go about it?

#include "gameworld.h"
#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
using std::cout;
using std::cin;
using std::endl;
using std::string;


gameworld::gameworld()
{
    std::ifstream north_file;
    std::ifstream east_file;
    std::ifstream south_file;
    std::ifstream west_file;
    north_file.open("DirectionDescriptions/North.txt");
    east_file.open("DirectionDescriptions/East.txt");
    south_file.open("DirectionDescriptions/South.txt");
    west_file.open("DirectionDescriptions/West.txt");
    string input;
    int x = 0;
    int y = 0;

    while (!north_file.eof())
    {
        std::getline(north_file, input);
        world[x][y].set_description(North, input);
        if ( y < boundary )
        {
            y++;
        }
        else
        {
            x++;
            y = 0;
        }
    }
    x = 0, y = 0;
    north_file.close();

    while (!east_file.eof())
    {
        std::getline(east_file, input);
        world[x][y].set_description(East, input);
        if ( y < boundary )
        {
            y++;
        }
        else
        {
            x++;
            y = 0;
        }
    }
    x = 0, y = 0;
    east_file.close();

    while (!south_file.eof())
    {
        std::getline(south_file, input);
        world[x][y].set_description(South, input);
        if ( y < boundary )
        {
            y++;
        }
        else
        {
            x++;
            y = 0;
        }
    }
    x = 0, y = 0;
    south_file.close();

    while (!west_file.eof())
    {
        std::getline(west_file, input);
        world[x][y].set_description(West, input);
        if ( y < boundary )
        {
            y++;
        }
        else
        {
            x++;
            y = 0;
        }
    }
    west_file.close();
}

[Yay295]

Yes.

How much information is in the files? If it's not very much, you could include them directly in the code and you wouldn't have to worry about them being missing or not opening for some reason. Though I guess you might want to be able to change the files without recompiling?

If you don't want to or can't put the files directly in the code, this will work better:

#include "gameworld.h"
#include <fstream>
#include <string>


void gameworld::gameworld ( )
{
    setDescription ( "North" );

    setDescription ( "East" );

    setDescription ( "South" );

    setDescription ( "West" );
}


// I made it a bool so you can check if the file opened.
bool gameworld::setDescription ( const std::string & direction )
{
    std::ifstream fin ( "DirectionDescriptions/" + direction + ".txt" );


    if ( fin ) // Is the file open?
    {
        std::string input;

        unsigned x = 0, y = 0;


        while ( getline ( fin, input ) )
        { // I don't know what this function takes, so you probably have a better way to do it.
            world[x][y].set_description ( direction, input );

            if ( y < boundary ) ++y;

            else
            {
                ++x;

                y = 0;
            }
        }


        return true;
    }


    return false; // File could not be opened.
}

[closed account 3R5fjE8b]

That is clever, a bit more organized. Thank you.

[closed account 3R5fjE8b]

This gives me an error.
std::ifstream fin ( "DirectionDescriptions/" + direction + ".txt" );

[Yay295]

How about:

bool gameworld::setDescription ( const std::string & direction )
{
    const std::string file_name = "DirectionDescriptions/" + direction + ".txt";

    std::ifstream fin ( file_name );


    if ( fin ) // Is the file open?
    {
        std::string input;

        unsigned x = 0, y = 0;


        while ( getline ( fin, input ) )
        { // I don't know what this function takes, so you probably have a better way to do it.
            world[x][y].set_description ( direction, input );

            if ( y < boundary ) ++y;

            else
            {
                ++x;

                y = 0;
            }
        }


        return true;
    }


    return false; // File could not be opened.
}

[closed account 3R5fjE8b]

I figured it out, had to do file_name.c_str()

[LB]

That was a change between C++03 and C++11 - in C++11 the file stream constructors now accept a std::string.

[closed account 3R5fjE8b]

So it should work? I'm using codeblocks.

[LB]

C++11 is often not enabled by default, you need to enable it for your compiler (often with the -std=c++11 flag)