File input issue, overwriting

[dubez001]

Hey guys, my first post here, so here is the problem:

I've worked on creating an ATM-like program, and now my only problem lies in writing the users balance to a text file. I can get the balance to write just fine, but when I start the program over, simulating revisiting an ATM, it resets the text in the file. I believe when I use membervar.open(filename) (for example), it is re-creating the file every time, although it already exists? Anyways, enough of my rambling.

First, my relevant classes:

class customer{	
	private:
	string name;
	string ID;
	
	public:
	void setname(string nm){
		name = nm;
	}
	
	string return_name(){
		return name;
	}
};

class transaction{
private:
	int dollars;
	
public:
	string deposit(int money){
		dollars += money;
		stringstream ss; // This could most likely be done better!
		ss << dollars; 
		return ss.str();
	}
	
	string withdraw(int money){
		dollars -= money;
		stringstream ss;
		ss << dollars;
		return ss.str();
	}
		
	string return_total(){
		stringstream ss;
		ss << dollars;
		return ss.str();
	}
	
	void set_total(int money){
		dollars = money;
	}
		
}; 

now for the function that does the file work:

void account()
{
	transaction trans; // customer user has already been declared by now
	
	ofstream ofile;
	ifstream ifile;
	
	int tran;
	int amount;
	int balance;
	
	string continues;
	string total;
	
	do{
		const char * unam = (user.return_name() + ".txt").c_str(); 
		
		ifile.open(unam);
		
		cout << getline(ifile, total); // it has reset by this point: incorrect

		balance = atoi(total.c_str());

		trans.set_total(balance);
		
		ifile.close();
		
		ofile.open(unam);  //each user has unique file for info/balance
		
		
		cout << "\nwould you like to make a deposit(1) or withdrawal(2)?" << endl;
		cin >> tran;
		cout << "\nand how much?" << endl;
		cin >> amount;
		(tran == 1) ? trans.deposit(amount) : trans.withdraw(amount);
		
		
		
		cout << trans.return_total(); //checking  variable value, which is: correct
		
		
		ofile << trans.return_total(); 
		ofile.close();

Thanks for any help guys!! Also, although I didn't post all of my code, let me know how what has been posted can be improved!

[Akshit]

use ios flags

ios::app or ios::ate

[dubez001]

Thank you for the reply!

Unfortunately, the addition of ios::app or ios::ate do not solve my problem. The file is still being reset, almost as if there is an invisible

ofile << "";

at the beginning of my do loop. This is not the case, as ios::app would fix that, but this is simply the best way I can describe the problem

[Akshit]

when you run program for first time then there is nothing in file.And you are inputting from file first.So you get nothing.

[dubez001]

Well when I run the program and either deposit or withdraw, then exit the program, that total is successfully written to the file desired. So, upon a second run of the program, what about the way I open the file, causes the file to be over written?

The first thing I do in the loop is read the contents of the file (which are no longer there) in to a variable, balance, which should be whatever was successfully written, above ^. Then after that the program gets to the writing portion. ?