Why does using std::ifstream under normal circumstances give me a segmentation fault?

Question

Sorry if anything I ask is obvious or stupid, I'm about 2 weeks into learning C++.

EDIT: I found the problem, it's that in the output from the file, all spaces are changed to a different character. Could someone close this question?

I've been trying to write a program that collects data about hypothetical employees. Recently, I have tried to let it read from a file - however, every time I run the code below (running fix();) I get a segmentation fault. Using the breakpoints, I narrowed it down to std::ifstream file(filename). I have tested it and tested it, and have figured out that the filename variable is not the issue - it still throws a fault even if I use a string literal. Other things I've found:

-Separating the std::ifstream file(filename) and placing it into another file where it cannot reference any of this file's variables works fine.

-The segmentation fault does NOT occur when I enter the name of a file that DOES NOT exist - instead, it gets to breakpoint 0 (like it should), prints Error in opening file. (like it should), and returns false (like it should).

Does anyone know why this is happening and how to fix it? This has been bothering me for days.

(Also, I am using Ubuntu 14.04 with G++ 4.8 - launch flag -std=c++1y)

EDIT Ok, this is getting extremely weird. The first thing I did was debug my program using std::couts every other line. This pinpointed the problem to std::ifstream. However, under @M.M and @hyde 's reccomendation, I ran my program through the Code::Blocks debugger. It told me that the segmentation fault occurred at emp->firstName = lineList[2]. So I commented out that line - but the debugger still says that line is the problem! It's saying that the problem is a COMMENTED OUT LINE! I'm more confused than ever.

#include <string>
#include <vector>
#include <fstream>
#include <sstream>
#include <iostream>
#include "baselibrary.h"
struct Employee
{
    int16_t id; // Employee ID
    std::string lastName; // Employee's last name
    std::string firstName; // Employee's first name
    char middleInitial; // Employee's middle initial
    int16_t age;
    bool gender; // false is male, true is female
    float salary;
    int16_t experience; // # of years working at company
    int16_t department; // Department from Departments::
};
std::vector<Employee> employeeArrayN;
int empNumN{1};
//... tons of snipped out code ...//
bool loadFromDatabaseFileN(){
    std::string filename;
    std::cout << "Please enter filename to load (with extension): ";
    std::getline(std::cin, filename);
    std::ifstream file(filename);
    std::cout << "Breakpoint 0!";
    if (!file){
        std::cout << "Error in opening file. ";
        return false;
    }
    std::cout << "Breakpoint 1!";
    while (file) // ifstream returns 0 when reaching EOF - 0 is boolean false
    {
        // it's probably OK to ignore the code under here, but you never know...
        std::string lineInput;
        std::cout << "Breakpoint 2!";
        Employee *emp = new Employee;
        std::cout << "Breakpoint 3!";
        ++empNumN;
        std::cout << "Breakpoint 4!";
        std::getline(file, lineInput);
        std::vector<std::string> lineList = splitString(lineInput, ' ');
        int16_t tempId;
        std::cout << "Breakpoint 5!";
        std::stringstream(lineList[0]) >> tempId;
        emp->id = tempId;
        emp->lastName = lineList[1];
        emp->firstName = lineList[2];
        char tempMInit;
        std::stringstream(lineList[3]) >> tempMInit;
        emp->middleInitial = tempMInit;
        int16_t tempAge;
        std::stringstream(lineList[4]) >> tempAge;
        emp->age = tempAge;
        bool tempGend;
        std::stringstream(lineList[5]) >> tempGend;
        emp->gender =  tempGend;
        float tempSalary;
        std::stringstream(lineList[6]) >> tempSalary;
        emp->salary = tempSalary;
        int16_t tempExperience;
        std::stringstream(lineList[7]) >> tempExperience;
        emp->experience = tempExperience;
        int16_t tempDepartment;
        std::stringstream(lineList[8]) >> tempDepartment;
        emp->department = tempDepartment;
        employeeArrayN.resize(empNumN);
        employeeArrayN[empNumN - 1] = *emp;
        std::cout << "Added new employe: [ID " << emp->id << "] " << emp->lastName << ", " << emp->firstName << " " << emp->middleInitial << ". \n";
    }
    file.close();
    return true;
}
//...snip...//

//fix is a function I added just for this question, I wouldn't want to bother you with my monolithic actual function//
void fix()
{
    bool notGonnaUse = loadFromDatabaseFileN();
}

Answer 1

This may not fix your problem but...

Using

while ( file )
{
   ...
   std::getline(file, lineInput);
   ...
}

is a problem. See Why is iostream::eof inside a loop condition considered wrong?.

Using

while ( file ) { }

suffers from the same problems as using:

while ( !file.eof() ) { }

Change that code to use:

// Move the declaration of lineInput out of the loop.
std::string lineInput;
while ( std::getline(file, lineInput) )
{
   ...
}