reading an entire txt file to memory

[unregistered]

how would I read an entire txt file to memory at 1 shot? and how would I know the amount of memory to reserve to store the data, etc?

[bdpetersen]

Create a txt file with the information in correct columns, as if you don't the information won't be right. This code should help.

ifstream inputFile;
ofstream outputFile;
inputFile.open("payInput.txt");
outputFile.open("outputFile.txt");

if(inputFile.fail())
cout << "Error opening inputfile!\n";
else if(outputFile.fail())
cout << "Error opening outputfile!\n";
else
{
outputColHeadings(outputFile);
readFileValues(inputFile, empIDArray, rateArray, hoursArray, dependArray);
then do calculations....
------FUNCTIONS--------------
void outputColHeadings(ofstream& outputFile)
{
outputFile <<" EmpId" << setw(10) <<"Rate"<< setw(9) <<"Hours" << setw(6)
<<"Dep" << setw(12) <<"Gross Pay" << setw(11) << "Fed. Tax"
<< setw(12) <<"State Tax" << setw(12) <<"Net Pay\n";
for (int i = 1; i <= 78; i++)
outputFile << "=";
outputFile << "\n";

return;
}//outputColHeadings
void readFileValues(ifstream& inputFile, long empID1Array[],
double rate1Array[], double hours1Array[],
int depend1Array[])
{
int i;

for(i=0; i < SIZE; i++)
inputFile >> empID1Array[i] >> rate1Array[i] >> hours1Array[i]
>> depend1Array[i];
return;
}//readFileValues

Hope that helped!

[unregistered]

for(i=0; i < SIZE; i++)
inputFile >> empID1Array[i] >> rate1Array[i] >> hours1Array[i]
>> depend1Array[i];
return;
}//readFileValues

In this scenario, you still need to know how many records there are in the file as in the SIZE constant. what I want is to be able to read everything without needing to know the file size/how many records in advance. I assume that a dynamic data structure must be used in this case?

[Valery Reznic]

At least on Unix you can use stat or fstat function to get size of the file