Object Oriented Programming with C++, Second Edition

SUMMARY

• File is a sequential collection of data items. It can be stored on and retrieved from a disk
• Text file consists only of characters. It is line oriented. Line length is not fixed. All program files (source code) are text files.
• Binary files store data in binary form. (Not in textual form). These files have certain advantages over text files. Program files are binary files.
• Opening of Text files: two possible styles.

  Defining an object of a class istream and using method open() with filename

  istream f1;

  f1.open(file_name);

  creating istream object using particular constructor

  istream f1(file_name);

• Reading a text file: (1) Using extraction operator; (2) using get(ch) function and (3) using getline() function.
• Writing a text file: (1) using ...