File Previewer

[SweetLilac]

I am working on this program, but it seems it is not working...it makes sense for me so I do not know what I am doing wrong, I will appreciate some help figuring out what is wrong and how to fix it.

The program has to ask the user for a file name and display the first 10 lines then if there are less than 10 lines it should display the entire file with a message indicating that the entire file has been displayed.

#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;

int main()
{
	//Variables
	ifstream file;
	string fileName;
	string line;
	int counter = 0;
	
	//1. Ask user for the name of a text file
	cout << "Please enter the name of the text file you want to open: " << endl;
	while (true)
	{
	getline(cin, fileName);
	file.open(fileName.c_str());
		//Check if file open was successful
		if (!file)
		{
			cout << "Error: cannot open the file " << fileName << endl;
			exit(1);
		}
	}

	//2. Display the first 10 lines
	while (getline(file, line))
	{
		counter++;
		if (counter > 1 && counter < 10)
		{
			cout << line << endl;
			cout << "The file has less than 10 lines." << endl;
			cout << "The entire file has been displayed!" << endl;
		}
		else if (counter > 1 && counter > 10)
		{
			cout << line << endl;
		}
		else
		{
			break;
		}
	}

	//3. CONDITION: if the file has fewer than 10 lines the entire file
	//should be displayed along with a message indicating the entire file
	//has been displayed.


	system("pause");
	return 0;
}

[cire]

Where does the loop that begins on line 16 and ends on line 26 get left? In other words, how is it possible to get to line 29?

[SweetLilac]

I think I see what you say...

I tried this:

//1. Ask user for the name of a text file
	cout << "Please enter the name of the text file you want to open: " << endl;
	getline(cin, fileName);
	file.open(fileName.c_str());
		//Check if file open was successful
		if (!file)
		{
			cout << "Error: cannot open the file " << fileName << endl;
			exit(1);
		}

[SweetLilac]

The problem seems to be in my while loop, but I am not sure how to fix it....

[SweetLilac]

The getline never reaches the while loop....

int main()
{
	//Variables
	ifstream file;
	string fileName;
	string line;
	int counter = 0;
	
	//1. Ask user for the name of a text file
	cout << "Please enter the name of the text file you want to open: " << endl;
	getline(cin, fileName);
	file.open(fileName.c_str());

	//2. Display the first 10 lines
	while (getline(file, line))
	{
		counter++;
		//Check if file open was successful
		if (!file)
		{
			cout << "Error: cannot open the file " << fileName << endl;
			exit(1);
		}
		else if (counter > 1 && counter < 10)
		{
			cout << line << endl;
			cout << "The file has less than 10 lines." << endl;
			cout << "The entire file has been displayed!" << endl;
		}
		else if (counter > 1 && counter > 10)
		{
			cout << line << endl;
		}
		else
		{
			break;
		}
	}

	//3. CONDITION: if the file has fewer than 10 lines the entire file
	//should be displayed along with a message indicating the entire file
	//has been dipalyed.


	system("pause");
	return 0;
}