Passing Filestream functions ifstream or ofstream

[WeebTriestoCode]

Hello, there. I am trying to open a txt file. There are many text files that I will be opening in the code that is why I am trying to create a function where you can print the string inside the txt file but I am having an error. What can I do to solve this problem? Thank you.

bool txtOpen(string s, ofstream& f);
void txtClose(ofstream& f);
void txtPrint(ofstream& f);

	ofstream processor; // I dont know if it should be ofstream or ifstream to pass in the argument.
	
	isOpen = txtOpen("processor.txt", processor);
	
	if(isOpen)
	{
		txtPrint(processor);
		
		txtClose(processor);
	}
	else
	{
		cout <<"Error. Stop right now!! \n";	
	}

bool txtOpen(string s, ofstream& f) 
{
	f.open(s);
	if(f.is_open())
		return true;  
	else 
		return false;
}
void txtClose(ofstream& f)
{
	f.close();
}
void txtPrint(ofstream& f)
{
	string line;
	getline(f.c_str,line);
	while(f);
	{
		cout << line << endl;
		getline(f,line);
	}
}

[Ganado]

Your lines 5 through 18 aren't part of a function, so that appears to be the most glaring issue.

Second issue is that you have a semi-colon on line 36, making your loop an infinite loop:

while (condition);
{
    statements;
}

means

while (condition)
{
    // nothing
}

{
    statements;
}

ofstream = OUTPUT stream. You write to an output stream.
ifstream = INPUT stream. You read from an input stream.
If you're trying to open an existing file, you want an input stream.
Hope that helps.

[JLBorges]

Use an input file stream. (std::ofstream is for output).

File streams are moveable; we can use move semantics if we want. For example:

#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>

std::ifstream open_text( const std::string& file_name )
{
    return std::ifstream(file_name) ;
}

bool print_file( std::ifstream text_file )
{
    return bool( std::cout << text_file.rdbuf() ) ;
}

int main()
{
    print_file( open_text(__FILE__ ) ) ;
}

http://coliru.stacked-crooked.com/a/59a38a52e072236e

[seeplus]

#include <fstream>
#include <string>
#include <iostream>

bool txtOpen(const std::string& s, std::ifstream& f);
void txtClose(std::ifstream& f);
void txtRead(std::ifstream& f);

int main()
{
	std::ifstream processor;

	if (txtOpen("processor.txt", processor)) {
		txtRead(processor);
		txtClose(processor);
	} else
		std::cout << "Error. Stop right now!! \n";
}

bool txtOpen(const std::string& s, std::ifstream& f)
{
	f.open(s);

	return f.is_open();
}

void txtClose(std::ifstream& f)
{
	f.close();
}

void txtRead(std::ifstream& f)
{
	for (std::string line; getline(f, line); std::cout << line << '\n');
}

[WeebTriestoCode]

Thank you for your help guys. Now, I can move on in this problem!

[seeplus]

If you pass ifstream by ref in a function, then you can do things like:

#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>

std::ifstream open_text(const std::string& file_name)
{
	return std::ifstream(file_name);
}

bool print_file(std::ifstream& text_file)
{
	return bool(std::cout << text_file.rdbuf());
}

int main()
{
	auto f {open_text(__FILE__)};

	print_file(f);
}

which if ifstream is passed by value in print_file() you can't - as it won't compile.