Coding Inquiry

[Fyron]

So I am writing this program to generate HTML files from a Components.txt file (have to do something during a quarter with no computer science classes ), and I have run into a problem. I can not seem to find any way to get ofstreams to accept strings as their filename, only arrays of characters. This sucks, as I can't make an array of characters with a dynamic size. I want to have separate HTML files for each General Group. Everything is working great except for the naming issue. Any group with a space generates gobbley-gook character arrays, even when I have a special case for spaces being turned into underscores. Also, it inserts a bunch of what I can only assume are null characters at the _beginning_ of the char array, rather than the end... :-\ Since I plan on releasing this open-sourced anyways, please take a look at the current freeze of the source code. The offending code starts with this line (can't get the line number, as on a crappy Dell comp atm...):

code:

---

 while (generalGroupVector.size() > 0) 

---

[Ruatha]

Sorry, don't have any C program, only does Delphi.

[Jack Simth]

Just at a glance, I suspect your problem is the various incarnations of

code:

---

for(int i = 0; i < BUFFER_SIZE; i++)

{

  buffer[i] ='\n';

]

---

for clearing out your strings; if this is it, then the problem would be that "standard" strings are terminated with a 0 in c, not with the newline character (this may vary by OS, if the one you are used to working in uses a 0 for the newline character). Your internal representation of strings appears to use the newline character for terminating, but then you turn around and use standard routines for output - the standard routines output the newline, don't see a 0, and so keep going through memory, spouting whatever happens to be there, until they do hit a 0. The suggested fix, bearing in mind that the possibility exists that this isn't actually the problem; I don't have great experiece with c, would be to change the various incarnations of the above to

code:

---

for(int i = 0; i < BUFFER_SIZE; i++)

{

  buffer[i] = 0; /* yes, c does allow you to give a character a numeric value */

]

---

and then have the newline character tacked on in your output routines.

Edit:
Also, c strings *are* character arrays already; further, you may want to go through and set it up to destroy some of those dynamic variables you keep allocationg

[ April 05, 2004, 09:41: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[Atrocities]

If you want to write a program, write one that automatically breaks the files down into easy to follow and PRINTABLE tech trees for use with mods.

[Fyron]

Setting the characters to be newline characters is not used on any of the strings where this problem occurs. Earlier when reading in the components, I use the newline character because I want lines read in that are just newlines (blank lines) to be skipped. If getting a line results in the string being just a newline, it gets skipped. I don't think this has anything to do with having lots of stuff appended to the beginning of the char arrays in this section, as I do not reference this function, nor the buffer string.

I am well aware that strings are just arrays of characters, but the ofstream class is unfortunately not aware of this. :-\

[Fyron]

Originally posted by Atrocities:
If you want to write a program, write one that automatically breaks the files down into easy to follow and PRINTABLE tech trees for use with mods.

That would be rather hard to do... if each tech only had one level, it would be easy. But with lots of levels, it becomes messey... :-\

[Cipher7071]

I'm not sure if this will help or not, but I seem to remember needing to use the chop() function on strings.

(hmmm...can't seem to remember if this was a C++, or a Perl thing?)

[ April 05, 2004, 20:51: Message edited by: Cipher7071 ]

[Ed Kolis]

You do know that all strings in C have to end with a null terminator, don't you?

Wouldn't it be better to use a string class that's available in many a C++ library?

[Fyron]

You miss the point... ofstream objects DO NOT ACCEPT strings. You have to use arrays of characters... this is where the problem lays, in trying to get an appropriate array of characters that are exactly the same as the string from which you are building it...

[Will]

Ummm... Fyron, I think you need to be introduced to the wonders of c_str().

code:

---

#include <string>

#include <fstream>

...

string aString;

...

ofstream outFile(aString.c_str()):

...

---

The c_str() method of string returns a pointer to a null-terminated array of char. Which is what the fstream classes take in their constructors.