Reading delimited files in C++

Question

What is the best way to read in a tab delimited file in C++ and store each line as a record? I have been looking for an open source library to help with this, but have been unsuccessful so it looks like I will have to write my own.

I was amazed that when I searched for this, I was unable to simply pluck some code from somewhere for such a simple thing. Anyway, I wrote a blog for my solution (based on other answers on Stack Exchange) [C++ Tidbits](http://goo.gl/y0bOVv) — Wybird666, Jul 24 '14 at 15:45

score 17 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 02 '09 at 17:52

17

typedef vector<vector<string> > Rows;
Rows rows;
ifstream input("filename.csv");
char const row_delim = '\n';
char const field_delim = '\t';
for (string row; getline(input, row, row_delim); ) {
  rows.push_back(Rows::value_type());
  istringstream ss(row);
  for (string field; getline(ss, field, field_delim); ) {
    rows.back().push_back(field);
  }
}

This will get you started. It doesn't do any checking that each row has the same number of fields, allow for escaping field_delim, etc.

answered Jul 02 '09 at 17:52

this code does bot work in visual studio. the error is error "C4430: missing type specifier - int assumed". I have included string.h – tumchaaditya Apr 26 '12 at 05:04
Code compiles fine on CentOS with g++. Not sure what you didn't add in to make it work – thaweatherman Jul 22 '13 at 17:45

EFraim · Answer 2 · 2009-07-02T18:20:20.937

5

There is no problem in using iostreams - you could read each line with getline into string, and then use stringstream on that string to iterate over fields.

edited Jul 02 '09 at 18:20

answered Jul 02 '09 at 17:39

EFraim

12,811
4
46
62

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 03 '09 at 10:22

0

There are a few libraries listed in wikipedia's article CSV_application_support.

answered Jul 03 '09 at 10:22

Etienne PIERRE

328
1
4

Reading delimited files in C++

3 Answers3