C++Talk.NET C++ language newsgroups   Archives   FAQ   Search   Memberlist   Usergroups   Register   Profile   Log in to check your private messages   Log in  reading data from text file          C++Talk.NET Forum Index -> C++ language (comp.lang.c++) View previous topic :: View next topic   Author Message Santah Guest Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2003 7:39 am    Post subject: reading data from text file hi I'm new to C++ and I'm currently working on Visual C++ 6.0 I'm trying to open a text file, and read some data from it part of the text file looks like this: -------- Stoichiometry C3H7NO Framework group C1[X(C3H7NO)] Deg. of freedom 30 Full point group C1 NOp 1 Largest Abelian subgroup C1 NOp 1 Largest concise Abelian subgroup C1 NOp 1 Standard orientation: --------------------------------------------------------------------- Center Atomic Atomic Coordinates (Angstroms) Number Number Type X Y Z --------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 7 0 -0.471842 1.385033 -0.179367 2 6 0 -0.441998 0.034984 0.352626 3 1 0 -0.532368 0.028578 1.492181 4 6 0 0.817945 -0.768835 0.128492 5 8 0 1.897598 -0.056037 -0.129721 6 6 0 -1.600140 -0.811575 -0.187269 7 1 0 -1.521476 -1.844231 0.228333 8 1 0 -2.577732 -0.368082 0.117451 9 1 0 -1.563751 -0.866827 -1.300932 10 1 0 0.330252 1.899884 0.122288 11 1 0 -1.306000 1.857479 0.102977 12 1 0 2.638344 -0.681170 -0.232052 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Rotational constants (GHZ): 8.3231162 3.9152127 2.8710745 Isotopes: N-14,C-12,H-1,C-12,O-16,C-12,H-1,H-1,H-1,H-1,H-1,H-1 Standard basis: VSTO-3G (5D, 7F) There are 27 symmetry adapted basis functions of A symmetry. Crude estimate of integral set expansion from redundant integrals=1.000. -------- what I need, is the values: 1 7 0 -0.471842 1.385033 -0.179367 2 6 0 -0.441998 0.034984 0.352626 3 1 0 -0.532368 0.028578 1.492181 4 6 0 0.817945 -0.768835 0.128492 5 8 0 1.897598 -0.056037 -0.129721 6 6 0 -1.600140 -0.811575 -0.187269 7 1 0 -1.521476 -1.844231 0.228333 8 1 0 -2.577732 -0.368082 0.117451 9 1 0 -1.563751 -0.866827 -1.300932 10 1 0 0.330252 1.899884 0.122288 11 1 0 -1.306000 1.857479 0.102977 12 1 0 2.638344 -0.681170 -0.232052 but I don't know how to fetch them :( here's what I've done so far .... (I know that it's not good nor working ) CFile file1("test.txt", CFile::modeRead ); DWORD dwLen = file1.GetLength(); char *pbuf = new char[dwLen] ; ffile1.ReadHuge( pbuf, dwLen ); CString sText(pbuf); delete []pbuf; // sText.Find("Standard orientation:"); so I have the whole file in a string, and now I need only to get the needed values from the string but I don't know how:( any help is welcomed ) Back to top zot Guest Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2003 11:41 am    Post subject: Re: reading data from text file Has the visual c++ a class to find regular expression similar to QT's regexp? If so you can use it. If not: Another point: probably it's better to fetch the file one line at a time. You can use the standard funtions : readline. Now you can write a function that fetches a floating number startinng from a char* (the ponter to the string), and stores it in a double var. This function should return error if it is impossible to parse the number. Suppose you call it f(char*,double). If it is impossible to fetch a number of int equal to the number of columns in your table then you are parsing a bad line ( a line extraneous to the table): Now you can write a loop: for(int i=0; i < NUMBER OF COL; i++) if ( f(string,number)== error) continue on next line; Hope this help. I have assumed you can write such a function, but if you want I can write it next time. Sorry but I haven't so much time at the moment.... "Santah" news:ed9bdbcb.0307272339.3d78ed64 (AT) posting (DOT) google.com... Quote: hi I'm new to C++ and I'm currently working on Visual C++ 6.0 I'm trying to open a text file, and read some data from it part of the text file looks like this: -------- Stoichiometry C3H7NO Framework group C1[X(C3H7NO)] Deg. of freedom 30 Full point group C1 NOp 1 Largest Abelian subgroup C1 NOp 1 Largest concise Abelian subgroup C1 NOp 1 Standard orientation: --------------------------------------------------------------------- Center Atomic Atomic Coordinates (Angstroms) Number Number Type X Y Z --------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 7 0 -0.471842 1.385033 -0.179367 2 6 0 -0.441998 0.034984 0.352626 3 1 0 -0.532368 0.028578 1.492181 4 6 0 0.817945 -0.768835 0.128492 5 8 0 1.897598 -0.056037 -0.129721 6 6 0 -1.600140 -0.811575 -0.187269 7 1 0 -1.521476 -1.844231 0.228333 8 1 0 -2.577732 -0.368082 0.117451 9 1 0 -1.563751 -0.866827 -1.300932 10 1 0 0.330252 1.899884 0.122288 11 1 0 -1.306000 1.857479 0.102977 12 1 0 2.638344 -0.681170 -0.232052 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Rotational constants (GHZ): 8.3231162 3.9152127 2.8710745 Isotopes: N-14,C-12,H-1,C-12,O-16,C-12,H-1,H-1,H-1,H-1,H-1,H-1 Standard basis: VSTO-3G (5D, 7F) There are 27 symmetry adapted basis functions of A symmetry. Crude estimate of integral set expansion from redundant integrals=1.000. -------- what I need, is the values: 1 7 0 -0.471842 1.385033 -0.179367 2 6 0 -0.441998 0.034984 0.352626 3 1 0 -0.532368 0.028578 1.492181 4 6 0 0.817945 -0.768835 0.128492 5 8 0 1.897598 -0.056037 -0.129721 6 6 0 -1.600140 -0.811575 -0.187269 7 1 0 -1.521476 -1.844231 0.228333 8 1 0 -2.577732 -0.368082 0.117451 9 1 0 -1.563751 -0.866827 -1.300932 10 1 0 0.330252 1.899884 0.122288 11 1 0 -1.306000 1.857479 0.102977 12 1 0 2.638344 -0.681170 -0.232052 but I don't know how to fetch them :( here's what I've done so far .... (I know that it's not good nor working ) CFile file1("test.txt", CFile::modeRead ); DWORD dwLen = file1.GetLength(); char *pbuf = new char[dwLen] ; ffile1.ReadHuge( pbuf, dwLen ); CString sText(pbuf); delete []pbuf; // sText.Find("Standard orientation:"); so I have the whole file in a string, and now I need only to get the needed values from the string but I don't know how:( any help is welcomed ) Back to top Thomas Matthews Guest Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2003 3:56 pm    Post subject: Re: reading data from text file zot wrote: 1. Don't top-post. Quote: Has the visual c++ a class to find regular expression similar to QT's regexp? If so you can use it. If not: Another point: probably it's better to fetch the file one line at a time. You can use the standard funtions : readline. readline is not a standard function. If it is, please quote where in the C++ specification that you found it. There is a function, std::getline(), which is part of the Standard Template Library. Quote: Now you can write a function that fetches a floating number startinng from a char* (the ponter to the string), and stores it in a double var. One could use the stringstream functions too. Or even sscanf(). Quote: This function should return error if it is impossible to parse the number. Suppose you call it f(char*,double). If it is impossible to fetch a number of int equal to the number of columns in your table then you are parsing a bad line ( a line extraneous to the table): But why write a function when one is available? Quote: Now you can write a loop: for(int i=0; i < NUMBER OF COL; i++) if ( f(string,number)== error) continue on next line; Hope this help. I have assumed you can write such a function, but if you want I can write it next time. Sorry but I haven't so much time at the moment.... "Santah" news:ed9bdbcb.0307272339.3d78ed64 (AT) posting (DOT) google.com... -- Thomas Matthews C++ newsgroup welcome message: http://www.slack.net/~shiva/welcome.txt C++ Faq: http://www.parashift.com/c++-faq-lite C Faq: http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/c-faq/top.html alt.comp.lang.learn.c-c++ faq: http://www.raos.demon.uk/acllc-c++/faq.html Other sites: http://www.josuttis.com -- C++ STL Library book Back to top Santah Guest Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2003 8:03 am    Post subject: Re: reading data from text file Thomas Matthews <Thomas_MatthewsHatesSpam (AT) sbcglobal (DOT) net> wrote Quote: Santah wrote: hi I'm new to C++ and I'm currently working on Visual C++ 6.0 I'm trying to open a text file, and read some data from it part of the text file looks like this: -------- Stoichiometry C3H7NO Framework group C1[X(C3H7NO)] Deg. of freedom 30 Full point group C1 NOp 1 Largest Abelian subgroup C1 NOp 1 Largest concise Abelian subgroup C1 NOp 1 Standard orientation: --------------------------------------------------------------------- Center Atomic Atomic Coordinates (Angstroms) Number Number Type X Y Z --------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 7 0 -0.471842 1.385033 -0.179367 2 6 0 -0.441998 0.034984 0.352626 3 1 0 -0.532368 0.028578 1.492181 4 6 0 0.817945 -0.768835 0.128492 5 8 0 1.897598 -0.056037 -0.129721 6 6 0 -1.600140 -0.811575 -0.187269 7 1 0 -1.521476 -1.844231 0.228333 8 1 0 -2.577732 -0.368082 0.117451 9 1 0 -1.563751 -0.866827 -1.300932 10 1 0 0.330252 1.899884 0.122288 11 1 0 -1.306000 1.857479 0.102977 12 1 0 2.638344 -0.681170 -0.232052 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Rotational constants (GHZ): 8.3231162 3.9152127 2.8710745 Isotopes: N-14,C-12,H-1,C-12,O-16,C-12,H-1,H-1,H-1,H-1,H-1,H-1 Standard basis: VSTO-3G (5D, 7F) There are 27 symmetry adapted basis functions of A symmetry. Crude estimate of integral set expansion from redundant integrals=1.000. -------- what I need, is the values: 1 7 0 -0.471842 1.385033 -0.179367 2 6 0 -0.441998 0.034984 0.352626 3 1 0 -0.532368 0.028578 1.492181 4 6 0 0.817945 -0.768835 0.128492 5 8 0 1.897598 -0.056037 -0.129721 6 6 0 -1.600140 -0.811575 -0.187269 7 1 0 -1.521476 -1.844231 0.228333 8 1 0 -2.577732 -0.368082 0.117451 9 1 0 -1.563751 -0.866827 -1.300932 10 1 0 0.330252 1.899884 0.122288 11 1 0 -1.306000 1.857479 0.102977 12 1 0 2.638344 -0.681170 -0.232052 but I don't know how to fetch them :( here's what I've done so far .... (I know that it's not good nor working ) CFile file1("test.txt", CFile::modeRead ); DWORD dwLen = file1.GetLength(); char *pbuf = new char[dwLen] ; ffile1.ReadHuge( pbuf, dwLen ); CString sText(pbuf); delete []pbuf; // sText.Find("Standard orientation:"); so I have the whole file in a string, and now I need only to get the needed values from the string but I don't know how:( any help is welcomed ) I'm in a good mood, so here is a foundation. :-) #include <fstream #include #include using std::ifstream; using std::string; using std::getline; using std::cerr; int main(void) { ifstream inp_data("test.txt"); // ifstream defaults to text files if (!inp_data) { cerr << "Error opening 'test.txt'n"; return EXIT_FAILURE; } //------------------------------------------------------------ // Skip past all the junk. //------------------------------------------------------------ string text_line; unsigned int dashed_line_count = 2; while (getline(inp_data, text_line, 'n')) { if ((text_line.length() > 1) && (text_line[0] == '-')) { --dashed_line_count; if (dashed_line_count == 0) break; } } if (!inp_data || (dashed_line_count > 0)) { cerr << "Data table not found.n"; return EXIT_FAILURE; } //------------------------------------------------------------ // At this point, the next text line should be the // first row of data. //------------------------------------------------------------ unsigned int center_number; unsigned int atomic_number; unsigned int atomic_type; double x_ord; double y_ord; double z_ord; while (inp_data >> center_number) { inp_data >> atomic_number >> atomic_type x_ord >> y_ord >> z_ord; Process_The_Data(center_number, atomic_number, atomic_type, x_ord, y_ord, z_ord); } return EXIT_SUCCESS; } Look Ma, no $#@!&*# MFC library required. And its portable too. {The code above has not been compiled nor tested.} -- Thomas Matthews C++ newsgroup welcome message: http://www.slack.net/~shiva/welcome.txt C++ Faq: http://www.parashift.com/c++-faq-lite C Faq: http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/c-faq/top.html alt.comp.lang.learn.c-c++ faq: http://www.raos.demon.uk/acllc-c++/faq.html Other sites: http://www.josuttis.com -- C++ STL Library book thanks that you took the time to try to help me, but.... I can't make your source work ... because: 1. I haven't seen anywhere in your source the string "Standard Orientation", and that is the keystring wich I should use to locate the table, because the text file is not with a fixed rows, and there can be many things above that table, but when there is the "Standard Orientation" string, I know that the table follows..... 2. The way you added values to those variables (atomic_number etc.) are they arrays or single values? because I need all the values from the table stored.... sorry if I missunderstood something, I'm not that good in programming, and thanks again for taking the time to read this bye Back to top Karl Heinz Buchegger Guest Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2003 2:14 pm    Post subject: Re: reading data from text file Karl Heinz Buchegger wrote: Quote: [snip] then one could use (referring to Mathews code again) Apologies to Thomas. When writing the reply I was under the impression that your first name is Mathews, while in fact Matthews is your surname and is spelled differently. -- Karl Heinz Buchegger [email]kbuchegg (AT) gascad (DOT) at[/email] Back to top Thomas Matthews Guest Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2003 2:17 pm    Post subject: Re: reading data from text file Santah wrote: Quote: Thomas Matthews <Thomas_MatthewsHatesSpam (AT) sbcglobal (DOT) net> wrote Santah wrote: hi I'm new to C++ and I'm currently working on Visual C++ 6.0 I'm trying to open a text file, and read some data from it part of the text file looks like this: -------- Stoichiometry C3H7NO Framework group C1[X(C3H7NO)] Deg. of freedom 30 Full point group C1 NOp 1 Largest Abelian subgroup C1 NOp 1 Largest concise Abelian subgroup C1 NOp 1 Standard orientation: --------------------------------------------------------------------- Center Atomic Atomic Coordinates (Angstroms) Number Number Type X Y Z --------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 7 0 -0.471842 1.385033 -0.179367 2 6 0 -0.441998 0.034984 0.352626 3 1 0 -0.532368 0.028578 1.492181 4 6 0 0.817945 -0.768835 0.128492 5 8 0 1.897598 -0.056037 -0.129721 6 6 0 -1.600140 -0.811575 -0.187269 7 1 0 -1.521476 -1.844231 0.228333 8 1 0 -2.577732 -0.368082 0.117451 9 1 0 -1.563751 -0.866827 -1.300932 10 1 0 0.330252 1.899884 0.122288 11 1 0 -1.306000 1.857479 0.102977 12 1 0 2.638344 -0.681170 -0.232052 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Rotational constants (GHZ): 8.3231162 3.9152127 2.8710745 Isotopes: N-14,C-12,H-1,C-12,O-16,C-12,H-1,H-1,H-1,H-1,H-1,H-1 Standard basis: VSTO-3G (5D, 7F) There are 27 symmetry adapted basis functions of A symmetry. Crude estimate of integral set expansion from redundant integrals=1.000. -------- what I need, is the values: 1 7 0 -0.471842 1.385033 -0.179367 2 6 0 -0.441998 0.034984 0.352626 3 1 0 -0.532368 0.028578 1.492181 4 6 0 0.817945 -0.768835 0.128492 5 8 0 1.897598 -0.056037 -0.129721 6 6 0 -1.600140 -0.811575 -0.187269 7 1 0 -1.521476 -1.844231 0.228333 8 1 0 -2.577732 -0.368082 0.117451 9 1 0 -1.563751 -0.866827 -1.300932 10 1 0 0.330252 1.899884 0.122288 11 1 0 -1.306000 1.857479 0.102977 12 1 0 2.638344 -0.681170 -0.232052 but I don't know how to fetch them :( here's what I've done so far .... (I know that it's not good nor working ) CFile file1("test.txt", CFile::modeRead ); DWORD dwLen = file1.GetLength(); char *pbuf = new char[dwLen] ; ffile1.ReadHuge( pbuf, dwLen ); CString sText(pbuf); delete []pbuf; // sText.Find("Standard orientation:"); so I have the whole file in a string, and now I need only to get the needed values from the string but I don't know how:( any help is welcomed ) I'm in a good mood, so here is a foundation. :-) #include <fstream #include #include using std::ifstream; using std::string; using std::getline; using std::cerr; int main(void) { ifstream inp_data("test.txt"); // ifstream defaults to text files if (!inp_data) { cerr << "Error opening 'test.txt'n"; return EXIT_FAILURE; } //------------------------------------------------------------ // Skip past all the junk. //------------------------------------------------------------ string text_line; unsigned int dashed_line_count = 2; while (getline(inp_data, text_line, 'n')) { if ((text_line.length() > 1) && (text_line[0] == '-')) { --dashed_line_count; if (dashed_line_count == 0) break; } } if (!inp_data || (dashed_line_count > 0)) { cerr << "Data table not found.n"; return EXIT_FAILURE; } //------------------------------------------------------------ // At this point, the next text line should be the // first row of data. //------------------------------------------------------------ unsigned int center_number; unsigned int atomic_number; unsigned int atomic_type; double x_ord; double y_ord; double z_ord; while (inp_data >> center_number) { inp_data >> atomic_number >> atomic_type x_ord >> y_ord >> z_ord; Process_The_Data(center_number, atomic_number, atomic_type, x_ord, y_ord, z_ord); } return EXIT_SUCCESS; } Look Ma, no $#@!&*# MFC library required. And its portable too. {The code above has not been compiled nor tested.} -- Thomas Matthews C++ newsgroup welcome message: http://www.slack.net/~shiva/welcome.txt C++ Faq: http://www.parashift.com/c++-faq-lite C Faq: http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/c-faq/top.html alt.comp.lang.learn.c-c++ faq: http://www.raos.demon.uk/acllc-c++/faq.html Other sites: http://www.josuttis.com -- C++ STL Library book thanks that you took the time to try to help me, but.... I can't make your source work ... because: 1. I haven't seen anywhere in your source the string "Standard Orientation", and that is the keystring wich I should use to locate the table, because the text file is not with a fixed rows, and there can be many things above that table, but when there is the "Standard Orientation" string, I know that the table follows..... Instead of comparing the text line read in to a '-', use the find() method of std::string to search for "Standard Orientation". That loop ignores all text until a marker is found. Quote: 2. The way you added values to those variables (atomic_number etc.) are they arrays or single values? because I need all the values from the table stored.... If you need _all_ the values stored before processing, then create a structure and use a vector of the structure: struct Atomic_Record { unsigned int center_number; unsigned int atomic_number; //... and so on }; #include <vector> using std::vector; typedef vector<Atomic_Record> Atomic_Vector; Atomic_Vector atom_info; //---------------------------- The input fragment will look like: Atomic_Record inp_record; while (inp_data >> inp_record.center_number) { // Fill in the fields of the structure inp_data >> inp_record.atomic_number Quote: inp_record.atomic_type // and so on ... inp_record.z_ord; // Save the record in the array: atom_info.push_back(inp_record); } Quote: sorry if I missunderstood something, I'm not that good in programming, and thanks again for taking the time to read this bye A better method would be to overload the operator>> (stream extraction) for the Atomic_Record structure and use that. With the overloaded operator, your input loop is simplified as: while (inp_data >> inp_record) { atom_info.push_back(inp_record); } Now, I am not writing your program for you, but illustrating some concepts, such as searching for a key string and reading variables from a text file. Your challenge is to adapt this information for your needs. Read the FAQ and welcome.txt below for some great information. By the way, do the world a favor and don't prefix your structure and class names with a 'C' or 'T'. These are the nomenclature for Microsoft and Borland libraries. Be more creative. -- Thomas Matthews C++ newsgroup welcome message: http://www.slack.net/~shiva/welcome.txt C++ Faq: http://www.parashift.com/c++-faq-lite C Faq: http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/c-faq/top.html alt.comp.lang.learn.c-c++ faq: http://www.raos.demon.uk/acllc-c++/faq.html Other sites: http://www.josuttis.com -- C++ STL Library book Back to top Thomas Matthews Guest Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2003 3:59 pm    Post subject: Re: reading data from text file Karl Heinz Buchegger wrote: Quote: Karl Heinz Buchegger wrote: [snip] then one could use (referring to Mathews code again) Apologies to Thomas. When writing the reply I was under the impression that your first name is Mathews, while in fact Matthews is your surname and is spelled differently. Apology accepted. -- Thomas Matthews C++ newsgroup welcome message: http://www.slack.net/~shiva/welcome.txt C++ Faq: http://www.parashift.com/c++-faq-lite C Faq: http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/c-faq/top.html alt.comp.lang.learn.c-c++ faq: http://www.raos.demon.uk/acllc-c++/faq.html Other sites: http://www.josuttis.com -- C++ STL Library book Back to top Santah Guest Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2003 12:54 pm    Post subject: Re: reading data from text file Thomas Matthews <Thomas_MatthewsHatesSpam (AT) sbcglobal (DOT) net> wrote Quote: Santah wrote: Thomas Matthews <Thomas_MatthewsHatesSpam (AT) sbcglobal (DOT) net> wrote Santah wrote: hi I'm new to C++ and I'm currently working on Visual C++ 6.0 I'm trying to open a text file, and read some data from it part of the text file looks like this: -------- Stoichiometry C3H7NO Framework group C1[X(C3H7NO)] Deg. of freedom 30 Full point group C1 NOp 1 Largest Abelian subgroup C1 NOp 1 Largest concise Abelian subgroup C1 NOp 1 Standard orientation: --------------------------------------------------------------------- Center Atomic Atomic Coordinates (Angstroms) Number Number Type X Y Z --------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 7 0 -0.471842 1.385033 -0.179367 2 6 0 -0.441998 0.034984 0.352626 3 1 0 -0.532368 0.028578 1.492181 4 6 0 0.817945 -0.768835 0.128492 5 8 0 1.897598 -0.056037 -0.129721 6 6 0 -1.600140 -0.811575 -0.187269 7 1 0 -1.521476 -1.844231 0.228333 8 1 0 -2.577732 -0.368082 0.117451 9 1 0 -1.563751 -0.866827 -1.300932 10 1 0 0.330252 1.899884 0.122288 11 1 0 -1.306000 1.857479 0.102977 12 1 0 2.638344 -0.681170 -0.232052 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Rotational constants (GHZ): 8.3231162 3.9152127 2.8710745 Isotopes: N-14,C-12,H-1,C-12,O-16,C-12,H-1,H-1,H-1,H-1,H-1,H-1 Standard basis: VSTO-3G (5D, 7F) There are 27 symmetry adapted basis functions of A symmetry. Crude estimate of integral set expansion from redundant integrals=1.000. -------- what I need, is the values: 1 7 0 -0.471842 1.385033 -0.179367 2 6 0 -0.441998 0.034984 0.352626 3 1 0 -0.532368 0.028578 1.492181 4 6 0 0.817945 -0.768835 0.128492 5 8 0 1.897598 -0.056037 -0.129721 6 6 0 -1.600140 -0.811575 -0.187269 7 1 0 -1.521476 -1.844231 0.228333 8 1 0 -2.577732 -0.368082 0.117451 9 1 0 -1.563751 -0.866827 -1.300932 10 1 0 0.330252 1.899884 0.122288 11 1 0 -1.306000 1.857479 0.102977 12 1 0 2.638344 -0.681170 -0.232052 but I don't know how to fetch them :( here's what I've done so far .... (I know that it's not good nor working ) CFile file1("test.txt", CFile::modeRead ); DWORD dwLen = file1.GetLength(); char *pbuf = new char[dwLen] ; ffile1.ReadHuge( pbuf, dwLen ); CString sText(pbuf); delete []pbuf; // sText.Find("Standard orientation:"); so I have the whole file in a string, and now I need only to get the needed values from the string but I don't know how:( any help is welcomed ) I'm in a good mood, so here is a foundation. :-) #include <fstream #include #include using std::ifstream; using std::string; using std::getline; using std::cerr; int main(void) { ifstream inp_data("test.txt"); // ifstream defaults to text files if (!inp_data) { cerr << "Error opening 'test.txt'n"; return EXIT_FAILURE; } //------------------------------------------------------------ // Skip past all the junk. //------------------------------------------------------------ string text_line; unsigned int dashed_line_count = 2; while (getline(inp_data, text_line, 'n')) { if ((text_line.length() > 1) && (text_line[0] == '-')) { --dashed_line_count; if (dashed_line_count == 0) break; } } if (!inp_data || (dashed_line_count > 0)) { cerr << "Data table not found.n"; return EXIT_FAILURE; } //------------------------------------------------------------ // At this point, the next text line should be the // first row of data. //------------------------------------------------------------ unsigned int center_number; unsigned int atomic_number; unsigned int atomic_type; double x_ord; double y_ord; double z_ord; while (inp_data >> center_number) { inp_data >> atomic_number >> atomic_type x_ord >> y_ord >> z_ord; Process_The_Data(center_number, atomic_number, atomic_type, x_ord, y_ord, z_ord); } return EXIT_SUCCESS; } Look Ma, no $#@!&*# MFC library required. And its portable too. {The code above has not been compiled nor tested.} -- Thomas Matthews C++ newsgroup welcome message: http://www.slack.net/~shiva/welcome.txt C++ Faq: http://www.parashift.com/c++-faq-lite C Faq: http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/c-faq/top.html alt.comp.lang.learn.c-c++ faq: http://www.raos.demon.uk/acllc-c++/faq.html Other sites: http://www.josuttis.com -- C++ STL Library book thanks that you took the time to try to help me, but.... I can't make your source work ... because: 1. I haven't seen anywhere in your source the string "Standard Orientation", and that is the keystring wich I should use to locate the table, because the text file is not with a fixed rows, and there can be many things above that table, but when there is the "Standard Orientation" string, I know that the table follows..... Instead of comparing the text line read in to a '-', use the find() method of std::string to search for "Standard Orientation". That loop ignores all text until a marker is found. 2. The way you added values to those variables (atomic_number etc.) are they arrays or single values? because I need all the values from the table stored.... If you need _all_ the values stored before processing, then create a structure and use a vector of the structure: struct Atomic_Record { unsigned int center_number; unsigned int atomic_number; //... and so on }; #include <vector using std::vector; typedef vector Atomic_Vector atom_info; //---------------------------- The input fragment will look like: Atomic_Record inp_record; while (inp_data >> inp_record.center_number) { // Fill in the fields of the structure inp_data >> inp_record.atomic_number inp_record.atomic_type // and so on ... inp_record.z_ord; // Save the record in the array: atom_info.push_back(inp_record); } sorry if I missunderstood something, I'm not that good in programming, and thanks again for taking the time to read this bye A better method would be to overload the operator>> (stream extraction) for the Atomic_Record structure and use that. With the overloaded operator, your input loop is simplified as: while (inp_data >> inp_record) { atom_info.push_back(inp_record); } Now, I am not writing your program for you, but illustrating some concepts, such as searching for a key string and reading variables from a text file. Your challenge is to adapt this information for your needs. Read the FAQ and welcome.txt below for some great information. By the way, do the world a favor and don't prefix your structure and class names with a 'C' or 'T'. These are the nomenclature for Microsoft and Borland libraries. Be more creative. -- Thomas Matthews C++ newsgroup welcome message: http://www.slack.net/~shiva/welcome.txt C++ Faq: http://www.parashift.com/c++-faq-lite C Faq: http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/c-faq/top.html alt.comp.lang.learn.c-c++ faq: http://www.raos.demon.uk/acllc-c++/faq.html Other sites: http://www.josuttis.com -- C++ STL Library book "By the way, do the world a favor and don't prefix your structure and class names with a 'C' or 'T'. These are the nomenclature for Microsoft and Borland libraries. Be more creative." I'm not doing it, and I'm against it too If I had pasted some code with class names with "c" or "t" it's because the code was not mine and I adapted it ) thanks for the help ... 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