Trouble when using functions?

[stormbot]

I created this program without functions and it worked fine... can anyone help me figure out why when I split the code into functions the totals that print are all zero? I was getting the correct totals before the functions.

// Unit 10 modularized.cpp : Defines the entry point for the console application.
//

#include "stdafx.h"
#include<iostream>
#include<string>
#include<fstream>
using namespace std;

// Declare functions
void openFile();
void printFile(fstream &);
int countChars(fstream &, int& upper, int& lower, int& digit);
void printCount(fstream &, int upper, int lower, int digit);

// Declare file stream object
fstream file;

// Declare global variables
char ch;
int upper;
int lower;
int digit;


int main()
{
	openFile();
	printFile(file);
	countChars(file, upper, lower, digit);

	// print spaces for clean look
	cout << "\n";
	cout << "\n";

	// system pause and screen clear
	system("pause");
	system("CLS");

	printCount(file, upper, lower, digit);

    return 0;
}

void openFile()
{
	file.open("text.txt", ios::in); // opens file
}

void printFile(fstream &file)
{
	if (file) // makes sure file was opened successfully
		while (file)
		{
			file.get(ch);
			cout << ch;
		}
	else
		cout << "Error handling file!\n"; // file error check
}

int countChars(fstream& file, int& upper, int& lower, int& digit)
{
	if (file)
		while (file >> ch)
		{

			file.seekg(0);
			file.get(ch);
			
			if (ch >= 'A' and ch <= 'Z')
			{
				upper += 1;
			}
			else if (ch >= 'a' and ch <= 'z')
			{
				lower += 1;
			}
			else if (ch >= '0' and ch <= '9')
			{
				digit += 1;
			}
		}
	return upper, lower, digit;
}

void printCount(fstream &file, int upper, int lower, int digit)
{
	cout << "The total number of uppercase letters: " << upper << endl;
	cout << "The total number of lowercase letters: " << lower << endl;
	cout << "The total number of digits: " << digit << endl;
}

[Ganado]

You call countChars on line 30, but at this point upper, lower, and digit are still uninitialized. Inside of countChars, you then increment these values. junk += 1 still produces junk!

When you call printFile, you exhaust your file stream until file becomes in a bad state (the file finishes). But then in countChars, you immediately check if (file). This will surely fail because you already exhausted your file stream.

		while (file >> ch)
		{

			file.seekg(0);
			file.get(ch);

You're constantly resetting file's file position...? Isn't this an infinite loop for you?

Also, what are you expecting line 84 to do? A function can only return 1 object.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comma_operator

[stormbot]

So I moved the seekg to before the loop and I am still getting 0 for my totals. What else do I need to do?

[Ganado]

Take it one step at a time. Don't just look at the final thing and be like "it's wrong, what do I do".

Figure out where in your program it first starts to deviate from what you expect it to do.
Give it a short file, with like 2 words in it, and go through your logic, line by line, to figure out exactly what and where something is going wrong. I strongly suggest using a debugger, but if you're stubborn, try adding more print statements to see what's happening at each part of your program.

If your total is not being updated, that means your upper/lower/digits are not being incremented. Why would that be?

Note that my_stream.clear() resets the error state of a I/O stream.

[stormbot]

I feel like it's because the file isn't resetting properly before the increment lines begin, but I added the file.seekg(0) before I start it and it didn't fix it... I also know that if I remove printFile() from main my totals work fine. So to me that shows that after printFile runs, the file is not being properly read in the totals function. I am just confused on how to resolve it...

[Ganado]

If your file isn't being reset properly, try file.clear() to reset the error state of a I/O stream. Or, you could re-assign it, ex: file = std::fstream("text.txt", ios::in);

[stormbot]

I changed the seekg line to file.clear() and I am still seeing no changes... what else could be causing the file to not reset? Am I passing fstream into the function properly? I am passing it by reference... is that correct? Are there any changes needed in the structure of the function?

[SECMoG1T]

hello @stormbot, well @Ganado already gave you the solution but maybe you missed it.

by the time you are calling your count char, the stream is in a bad state because the "EOF"
bit is set, i notice that you did not checking if your stream was in a bad state and that would have saved you some time.

i have attempted to correct your code and give you some pointers using comments, hope you get the point.

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

// Declare functions
void openFile();
void printFile(fstream &);
int countChars(fstream &, int& upper, int& lower, int& digit);
void printCount(fstream &, int upper, int lower, int digit);

// Declare file stream object
fstream file;

// Declare global variables
char ch;
int upper;
int lower;
int digit;


int main()
{
	openFile();
	printFile(file);
	countChars(file, upper, lower, digit);

	// print spaces for clean look
	cout << "\n";
	cout << "\n";

	// system pause and screen clear
	system("pause");
	system("CLS");

	printCount(file, upper, lower, digit);

    return 0;
}

void openFile()
{
	file.open("test.txt", ios::in); // opens file
}

void printFile(fstream &file)
{
	if (file) // makes sure file was opened successfully
		while (file)
		{
			file.get(ch);
			cout << ch;
		}
	else
		cout << "Error handling file!\n"; // file error check
}

int countChars(fstream& file, int& upper, int& lower, int& digit)
{
    ///your file eof is already set you need to reset your file stream before use
    file.clear(); ///clear
    file.seekg(0); ///reset read pos

	if (file)
		while (file >> ch)
		{

			///file.seekg(0); remove from here
			///file.get(ch);  consumes an extra character

			if (ch >= 'A' and ch <= 'Z')
			{
				upper += 1;
			}
			else if (ch >= 'a' and ch <= 'z')
			{
				lower += 1;
			}
			else if (ch >= '0' and ch <= '9')
			{
				digit += 1;
			}
		}

    else
        std::cout<<"\nbad stream\n"; ///check if your stream failed

	return upper, lower, digit; ///this return is wrong, make this a void function your are passing you vars by ref.
}

void printCount(fstream &file, int upper, int lower, int digit) ///file is unused am sure you don't need it
{
	cout << "The total number of uppercase letters: " << upper << endl;
	cout << "The total number of lowercase letters: " << lower << endl;
	cout << "The total number of digits: " << digit << endl;
}

IMPORTANT: if your file isn't really big , please load it into an array or an stl container and work on the data from there, dealing with direct file streams can be resource consuming and error prone.

[stormbot]

How do I handle the file.get line consuming an extra character?

[SECMoG1T]

first of all note that file.get(ch) and file>>ch achieves the same functionality, so you only need one of the two to handle the read.

How do I handle the file.get line consuming an extra character?

delete that line from the code, your program will work fine.

this two approaches does the same thing

void countChars(fstream& file, int& upper, int& lower, int& digit)
{
    file.clear(); 
    file.seekg(0);

	if (file)
		while (file >> ch)
		{
			if (ch >= 'A' and ch <= 'Z')
			{
				upper += 1;
			}
			else if (ch >= 'a' and ch <= 'z')
			{
				lower += 1;
			}
			else if (ch >= '0' and ch <= '9')
			{
				digit += 1;
			}
		}

    else
        std::cout<<"\nbad stream\n";
}

///or

void countChars(fstream& file, int& upper, int& lower, int& digit)
{
    file.clear(); 
    file.seekg(0);

	if (file)
		while (file.get(ch))
		{
			if (ch >= 'A' and ch <= 'Z')
			{
				upper += 1;
			}
			else if (ch >= 'a' and ch <= 'z')
			{
				lower += 1;
			}
			else if (ch >= '0' and ch <= '9')
			{
				digit += 1;
			}
		}

    else
        std::cout<<"\nbad stream\n";
}

[SECMoG1T]

consider a different approach where i load my file into a vector instead of directly working with a filestream;

#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <string>
#include <vector>
#include <cctype>



// Declare functions
std::vector<std::string> loadFile(const std::string& fileName);
void printFileContent(const std::vector<std::string>& fileContent);
void countNPrintChars(const std::vector<std::string>& fileContent);


int main()
{
    std::string fileName("test.txt");

    auto  contentVec = loadFile(fileName);

    printFileContent(contentVec);
    countNPrintChars(contentVec);

    return 0;
}



std::vector<std::string> loadFile(const std::string& fileName)
{
    std::vector<std::string> _fileVec{};

    std::ifstream _fileStream(fileName);

    if(!_fileStream)
        std::cout<<"\nFailed to open file: <"<<fileName<<">\n";

    else
    {
        std::string _temp{};

        while(std::getline(_fileStream,_temp,'\n'))
            _fileVec.push_back(_temp);
    }

    return _fileVec;
}



void printFileContent(const std::vector<std::string>& fileContent)
{
    if(fileContent.size()) ///check to see if file open and was read properly
    {
       std::size_t _index = 1;

       std::cout<<"\n\tFile content\n";
       std::cout<<"    _______________________________\n";
       for(const auto& str : fileContent)
       {
           std::cout<<"\tline "<<_index++<<") "<<str<<"\n";
       }
    }

    else
        std::cout<<"\nproblem opening the file or the file might have been empty\n";
}




void countNPrintChars(const std::vector<std::string>& fileContent)
{
   std::size_t _upperCase = 0, _lowerCase = 0, _digit = 0, _totalAlphaNum = 0;

   for(auto str : fileContent)
   {
       for(auto chr : str)
       {
           if(std::isdigit(chr))
             ++_digit;

           else if(std::isupper(chr))
             ++_upperCase;

           else if(std::islower(chr))
             ++_lowerCase;
       }
   }

   _totalAlphaNum = (_digit + _upperCase + _lowerCase);

   std::cout<<"\n\n    _______________________________\n";
   std::cout<<"\tTotal # of characters  : "<<_totalAlphaNum<<"\n";
   std::cout<<"    _______________________________\n";
   std::cout<<"\tUppercase characters   : "<<_upperCase<<"\n";
   std::cout<<"\tLowercase characters   : "<<_lowerCase<<"\n";
   std::cout<<"\tTotal num of  Digits   : "<<_digit<<"\n";
}

[stormbot]

I really appreciate the help from everyone, I have it working as desired now. I have a ways to go with c++ so I am very thankful for your patience!