4. IOstream Library
• This is usually called as Standard Input /
Output Streams Library
• The iostream library is an object-oriented
library that provides input and output
functionality using streams.
5. What is a stream?
• A stream is an abstraction that represents a device on which input
and output operations are performed.
• A stream can basically be represented as a source or destination of
characters of indefinite length.
• Streams are generally associated to a physical source or destination
of characters, like a disk file, the keyboard, or the console, so the
characters gotten or written to/from our abstraction called stream
are physically input/output to the physical device.
• For example, file streams are C++ objects to manipulate and
interact with files; Once a file stream is used to open a file, any input
or output operation performed on that stream is physically reflected
in the file.
6. CLASS HIERARCHY
DIAGRAM
• C++ provides a complete set of abstract
classes and concrete classes for
input/output.
• The classes are divided into groups that
few work with files, few on streams, string
or characters etc.
• A complete class hierarchy diagram is as
7.
8. Organization
• The library and its hierarchy of classes is split in
different files:
2. <ios>, <istream>, <ostream>, <streambuf> and
<iosfwd> aren't usually included directly in most C++
programs.
– They describe the base classes of the hierarchy and are
automatically included by other header files of the library that
contain derived classes.
3. <iostream> declares the objects used to communicate
through the standard input and output (including cin
and cout).
9. • <fstream> defines the file stream classes
(like the template basic_ifstream or the
class ofstream) as well as the internal
buffer objects used with these
(basic_filebuf).
– These classes are used to manipulate files
using streams.
2. <sstream>: The classes defined in this
file are used to manipulate string objects
as if they were streams.
10. streambuf
• streambuf is Base buffer class for streams
• streambuf objects are in charge of providing
reading and writing functionality to/from certain
types of character sequences, such as external
files or strings.
• streambuf objects are usually associated with
one specific character sequence, from which
they read and write data through an internal
memory buffer.
11. • This is an abstract base class, therefore
no objects can be directly instantiated
from it.
• The standard hierarchy defines two
classes derived from this one that can be
used to directly instantiate objects: filebuf
and stringbuf.
12. ostream
• It is a output stream.
• The class hierarchy is as :
ios_base ios ostream iostream
ofstream
ostringstream
13. • ostream objects are stream objects used to
write and format output as sequences of
characters.
• Specific members are provided to perform
these output operations, which can be divided
in two main groups:
• Formatted output
These member functions interpret and format the
data to be written as sequences of characters.
These type of operation is performed using
member and global functions that overload
the insertion operator (operator<<).
14. – Unformatted output
Most of the other member functions of the
ostream class are used to perform unformatted
output operations, i.e. output operations that
write the data as it is, with no formatting
adaptations.
These member functions can write a determined
number of characters to the output character
sequence (put, write) and manipulate the put
pointer (seekp, tellp).
• The standard objects cout, cerr and clog
are instantiations of this class.
15. • ostream class inherits all the internal fields from
its parent classes i.e. ios_base and ios:
2. Formatting information
• format flags: a set of internal indicators describing how
certain input/output operations shall be interpreted or
generated. The state of these indicators can be obtained or
modified by calling the members flags, setf and unsetf, or by
using manipulators.
• field width: describes the width of the next element to be
output. This value can be obtained/modified by calling the
member function width or parameterized manipulator setw.
• display precision: describes the decimal precision to be
used to output floating-point values. This value can be
obtained/modified by calling member precision or
parameterized manipulator setprecision.
16. • fill character: character used to pad a field up to the field
width. It can be obtained or modified by calling member
function fill or parameterized manipulator setfill.
• locale object: describes the localization properties to be
considered when formatting i/o operations. The locale
object used can be obtained calling member getloc and
modified using member imbue.
1. State information
• error state: internal indicator reflecting the integrity and
current error state of the stream. The current object may be
obtained by calling rdstate and can be modified by calling
clear and setstate. Individual values may be obtained by
calling good, eof, fail and bad.
• exception mask: internal exception status indicator. Its
value can be retrieved/modified by calling member
exceptions.
17. 1. Other
– event function stack: stack of pointers to callback
functions that are called when certain events occur.
Additional callback functions may be registered to be
called when an event occurs, using member function
register_callback.
– internal extensible arrays: two internal arrays to
store long objects and void pointers. These arrays
can be extended by calling member function xalloc,
and references to these objects can be retrieved
with iword or pword.
– pointer to tied stream: pointer to the stream object
which is tied to this stream object. It can be
obtained/modified by calling member function tie.
– pointer to stream buffer: pointer to the associated
streambuf object. It can be obtained/modified by
calling member function rdbuf.
18. public members - ostream
(constructor) Construct object (constructor
member)
(destructor) Destruct object (destructor member)
Formatted output:
operator<< - Insert data with format (public member
function)
Unformatted output:
put - Put character (public member function)
write - Write block of data (public member
function)
19. Positioning:
tellp - Get position of put pointer (public
member function)
seekp- Set position of put pointer (public
member function )
Synchronization:
flushFlush output stream buffer (public member
function)
20. istream
• It is a input stream class.
• The class hierarchy is as :
ios_base ios istream iostream
ifstream
istringstream
21. • istream objects are stream objects used to read
and interpret input from sequences of
characters.
• Specific members are provided to perform
these input operations, which can be divided in
two main groups:
• Formatted input
These functions extract data from a sequence
of characters that may be interpreted and
formatted to a value of a certain type. These
type of operation is performed using member
and global functions that overload the
extraction operator ().
22. • Unformatted input Most of the other member
functions of the istream class are used to perform
unformatted input, i.e. no interpretation is made on the
characters got form the input.
These member functions can get a determined number
of characters from the input character sequence (get,
getline, peek, read, readsome), manipulate the get
pointer i(ignore, seekg, tellg, unget) or get information
of the last unformatted input operation (gcount).
• Additionally, a member function exists to synchronize
the stream with the associated external source of
characters: sync.
• The standard object cin is an instantiation of this class.
23. • The class inherits all the internal fields from its parent
classes ios_base and ios:
3. Formatting information
– format flags: a set of internal indicators describing how certain
input/output operations shall be interpreted or generated. The state of
these indicators can be obtained or modified by calling the members
flags, setf and unsetf, or by using manipulators.
– field width: describes the width of the next element to be output. This
value can be obtained/modified by calling the member function width
or parameterized manipulator setw.
– display precision: describes the decimal precision to be used to
output floating-point values. This value can be obtained/modified by
calling member precision or parameterized manipulator setprecision.
– fill character: character used to pad a field up to the field width. It can
be obtained or modified by calling member function fill or
parameterized manipulator setfill.
– locale object: describes the localization properties to be considered
when formatting i/o operations. The locale object used can be obtained
calling member getloc and modified using member imbue.
24. 1. State information
• error state: internal indicator reflecting the
integrity and current error state of the stream.
The current object may be obtained by calling
rdstate and can be modified by calling clear and
setstate. Individual values may be obtained by
calling good, eof, fail and bad.
• exception mask: internal exception status
indicator. Its value can be retrieved/modified by
calling member exceptions.
25. 1. Other
– event function stack: stack of pointers to callback
functions that are called when certain events occur.
Additional callback functions may be registered to be
called when an event occurs, using member function
register_callback.
– internal extensible arrays: two internal arrays to store
long objects and void pointers. These arrays can be
extended by calling member function xalloc, and
references to these objects can be retrieved with iword
or pword.
– pointer to tied stream: pointer to the stream object
which is tied to this stream object. It can be
obtained/modified by calling member function tie.
– pointer to stream buffer: pointer to the associated
streambuf object. It can be obtained/modified by calling
member function rdbuf.
26. public members - istream
• (constructor) Construct object (constructor member)
• (destructor) Destruct object (destructor member)
• Formatted input:
operator>> Extract formatted data (public member function )
• Positioning:
tellg - Get position of the get pointer. (public member
function)
seekg - Set position of the get pointer (public member
function )
• Synchronization:
sync - Synchronize input buffer with source of characters
(public member function)
27. • Unformatted input:
2. gcount - Get number of characters extracted by last
unformatted input operation (public member function)
3. get - Get unformatted data from stream (public member
function )
4. Getline - Get line from stream (public member function )
5. Ignore - Extract and discard characters (public member
functions)
6. Peek - Peek next character (public member function )
7. Read - Read block of data (public member function)
8. Readsome - Read block of data available in the buffer
(public member function )
9. Putback - Put character back (public member function )
10. Unget - Decrement get pointer (public member
function )
28. File Handling
C++ provides the following classes to
perform output and input of characters
to/from files:
• ofstream: Stream class to write on files
• ifstream: Stream class to read from files
• fstream: Stream class to both read and
write from/to files.
29. • These classes are derived directly or indirectly from the
classes istream, and ostream.
• We have already used objects whose types were these
classes:
cin is an object of class istream
cout is an object of class ostream
• Therefore, we have already been using classes that are
related to our file streams.
• And in fact, we can use our file streams the same way
we are already used to use cin and cout, with the only
difference that we have to associate these streams with
physical files.
30. Why file handling
• Convenient way to deal large quantities of data.
• Store data permanently (until file is deleted).
• Avoid typing data into program multiple times.
• Share data between programs.
We need to know:
how to "connect" file to program
how to tell the program to read data
how to tell the program to write data
error checking and handling EOF
31. A sample code
// basic file operations
#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
using namespace std;
int main () {
ofstream myfile;
myfile.open ("example.txt");
myfile << "Writing this to a file.n";
myfile.close();
return 0;
}
32. • This code creates a file called example.txt
• Inserts a sentence into it in the same way
we are used to do with cout,
• But it is using the file stream myfile instead
of using the standard output stream i.e.
cout.
33. Step1 – open a file
• The first operation generally performed on an object of
one of these classes is to associate it to a real file. This
procedure is known as to open a file.
• An open file is represented within a program by a stream
object (an instantiation of one of these classes, in the
previous example this was myfile) and
• Any input or output operation performed on this stream
object will be applied to the physical file associated to it.
34. open function
• In order to open a file with a stream object i.e. an object
of type ofstream we use its member function open():
open (filename, mode);
Where
filename - is a null-terminated character sequence of
type const char * (the same type that string literals have)
representing the name of the file to be opened,
mode - is an optional parameter with a combination of
the following flags:
35. modes
ios::in Open for input operations.
ios::out Open for output operations.
ios::binary Open in binary mode.
ios::ate Set the initial position at the end of the file.
If this flag is not set to any value, the initial position is the
beginning of the file.
ios::app All output operations are performed at the end of the file,
appending the content to the current content of the file.
This flag can only be used in streams open for output-only
operations.
ios::trunc If the file opened for output operations already existed before,
its previous content is deleted and replaced by the new one.
36. • All these mode flags can be combined using the
bitwise operator OR (|).
• For example, if we want to open the file
example.bin in binary mode to add data we
could do it by the following call to member
function open():
ofstream myfile;
myfile.open ("example.bin", ios::out |
ios::app | ios::binary);
37. • For ifstream and ofstream classes, ios::in
and ios::out are automatically and
respectively assumed, even if a mode that
does not include them is passed as
second argument to the open() member
function.
38. Default open mode
• If we do not specify any mode with the open
function, it assumes some default values
depending upon the type of stream object you
are creating.
• Each one of the open() member functions of the
classes ofstream, ifstream and fstream has a
default mode that is used if the file is opened
without a second argument:
40. • For ifstream and ofstream classes, ios::in and
ios::out are automatically and respectively
assumed, even if a mode that does not include
them is passed as second argument to the
open() member function.
• The default value is only applied if the function is
called without specifying any value for the mode
parameter. If the function is called with any value
in that parameter the default mode is overridden,
not combined.
41. • File streams opened in binary mode
perform input and output operations
independently of any format
considerations.
• Non-binary files are known as text files,
and some translations may occur due to
formatting of some special characters (like
newline and carriage return characters).
42. Using constructor
to open a file
• Since the first task that is performed on a file stream
object is generally to open a file, these three classes
include a constructor that automatically calls the open()
member function and has the exact same parameters as
this member function.
• Therefore, we could also have declared the previous
myfile object and conducted the same opening operation
in our previous example by using the constructor only,
that will create the stream object for file and will open it
as well:
43. ofstream myfile ("example.bin",
ios::out | ios::app |
ios::binary);
• Combining object construction and stream
opening in a single statement.
• Both forms to open a file are valid and
equivalent.
44. Error checking for
opening a file
• To check if a file stream was successful opening
a file, you can do it by calling to member
is_open() with no arguments.
• This member function returns a bool value of
true in the case that indeed the stream object is
associated with an open file, or false otherwise:
if (myfile.is_open()) {
/* ok, proceed with output */
}
45. Step 2.
Using the file stream object
• After the file stream is opened
successfully with desired opening mode,
we can use the object to read/write data to
the file
• For example, if I need to open a file for
output operations and want o write some
data to file, we will write a code lines like
46. ……….
// create an object of ofstream type
ofstream myfile;
// open the stream for file example.txt.
// note – no open mode is specified so
// default will be used i.e. ios::out here
// as it is an objetc of ofstream class
myfile.open ("example.txt");
// use the myfile object to write to file.
// note – the use of << to write to file, in the same
// way as with cout.
myfile << "Writing this to a file.n";
……………
47. Step 3 – close a file
• When we are finished with our input and output
operations on a file we shall close it so that its resources
become available again for some other process/program
for further usage of the same file.
• In order to do that we have to call the stream's member
function close().
• This member function takes no parameters, and what it
does is
– to flush the associated buffers and
– close the file.
48. Syntax – close()
• The code will be like
myfile.close();
Where myfile is a stream object already opened with the
open member function.
• Once this member function is called, the stream object
like myfile here can be used to open another file,
• The file is available again to be opened by other
processes.
49. Text files
• Text file streams are those where we do not
include the ios::binary flag in their opening
mode.
• These files are designed to store text and thus
all values that we input or output from/to them
can suffer some formatting transformations,
which do not necessarily correspond to their
literal binary value.
• These are the types of files those are widely
used for storing data.
50. Data output on text files
• Data output operations on text files are
performed in the same way we operated
with cout.
• We can create an object of type ofstream
and use this stream object for any output
to the associated file.
• Example to write to file example.txt
51. // writing on a text file
#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
using namespace std;
int main () {
ofstream myfile ("example.txt");
if (myfile.is_open()) {
myfile << "This is a line.n";
myfile << "This is another line.n";
myfile.close();
}
else {
cout << "Unable to open file";
}
return 0;
}
52. • After running the above program, see the
contents of file example.txt.
• The contents will be what we write to file in
the program as
[file example.txt]
This is a line.
This is another line.
53. Data input from a text files
• Data input from a file can also be
performed in the same way that we did
with cin.
• We can create an object of type ofstream
and use this stream object for any output
to the associated file.
• Example to read from file example.txt
54. // reading a text file
#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;
int main () {
string line;
ifstream myfile ("example.txt");
if (myfile.is_open())
{
while ( myfile.good() )
{
getline (myfile,line);
cout << line << endl;
}
myfile.close();
}
else {
cout << "Unable to open file";
}
return 0;
}
55. • This last example reads a text file and prints out
its content on the screen.
• Notice how we have used a new member
function, called good() that returns true in the
case that the stream is ready for input/output
operations.
• We have created a while loop that finishes when
indeed myfile.good() is no longer true, which
will happen either
• if the end of the file has been reached or
• if some other error occurred.
56. Checking status flags
• In addition to good(), which checks
whether the stream is ready for
input/output operations, other member
functions exist to check for specific states
of a stream
• All of them return a bool type value.
57. bad()
– Returns true if a reading or writing operation
fails.
– For example in the case that we try to write to
a file that is not open for writing or if the
device where we try to write has no space left.
fail()
– Returns true in the same cases as bad(), but
also in the case that a format error happens,
like when an alphabetical character is
extracted when we are trying to read an
integer number.
58. eof()
– Returns true if a file open for reading has reached the
end.
good()
– It is the most generic state flag: it returns false in the
same cases in which calling any of the previous
functions would return true.
In order to reset the state flags checked by any
of these member functions we have just seen we
can use the member function clear(), which
takes no parameters.
59. get and put
stream pointers
• All i/o streams objects have, at least, one internal stream pointer.
• ifstream, like istream, has a pointer known as the get pointer that
points to the element to be read in the next input operation.
• ofstream, like ostream, has a pointer known as the put pointer that
points to the location where the next element has to be written.
60. • Finally, fstream, inherits both, the get and the put
pointers, from iostream (which is itself derived
from both istream and ostream).
• These internal stream pointers that point to the
reading or writing locations within a stream can
be manipulated using the following member
functions:
• tellg() and tellp()
• seekg() and seekp()
61. tellg()
• Get position of the get pointer.
• Returns the absolute position of the get pointer.
• The get pointer determines the next location in the input
sequence to be read by the next input operation.
62. streampos tellg ( );
• Parameters :none
• Return Value
An integral value of type streampos with the number of
characters between the beginning of the input sequence
and the current position.
• Failure is indicated by returning a value of -1.
Example: In this example, tellg is used to get the position in
the stream after it has been moved with seekg to the end
of the stream, therefore determining the size of the file.
63. // read a file into memory
#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
using namespace std;
int main () {
int length;
char * buffer;
ifstream is;
is.open ("test.txt", ios::binary );
// get length of file:
is.seekg (0, ios::end);
length = is.tellg();
is.seekg (0, ios::beg);
// allocate memory:
buffer = new char [length];
// read data as a block:
is.read (buffer,length);
is.close();
cout.write (buffer,length);
return 0;
}
64. tellp
• Get position of put pointer
• Returns the absolute position of the put
pointer.
The put pointer determines the location in
the output sequence where the next
output operation is going to take place.
65. • Parameters: none
• Return Value
An integral value of type streampos with the number of
characters between the beginning of the output
sequence and the current position.
• Failure is indicated by returning a value of -1.
• Example:
In this example, tellp is used to get the position of the put
pointer after the writing operation.
The pointer is then moved back 7 characters to modify
the file at that position,
so the final content of the file shall be:
This is a sample
66. // position of put pointer
#include <fstream>
using namespace std;
int main () {
long pos;
ofstream outfile;
outfile.open ("test.txt");
outfile.write ("This is an apple",16); pos=outfile.tellp();
outfile.seekp (pos-7);
outfile.write (" sam",4);
outfile.close();
return 0;
}
67. seekg()
• Set position of the get pointer
• Sets the position of the get pointer.
• The get pointer determines the next
location to be read in the source
associated to the stream.
istream& seekg ( streampos pos );
istream& seekg ( streamoff off, ios_base::seekdir dir );
68. • Parameters
pos: The new position in the stream buffer. This parameter is an
integral value of type streampos.
Off: Integral value of type streamoff representing the offset to be
applied relative to an absolute position specified in the dir
parameter.
Dir: Seeking direction. It is an object of type ios_base::seekdir that
specifies an absolute position from where the offset parameter off
is applied. It can take any of the following member constant values:
value offset is relative to...
ios_base::beg beginning of the stream buffer
ios_base::cur current position in the stream buffer
ios_base::end end of the stream buffer
69. • Return Value : The function returns *this.
• Errors are signaled by modifying the internal
state flags:
flag error
eofbit -
The parameter(s) describe a position that could
failbit not be reached.
badbit An error other than the above happened.
Additionally, in any of these cases, if the appropriate flag has been set with
member function ios::exceptions, an exception of type ios_base::failure is
thrown.
70. // load a file into memory -
// In this example seekg is used to move the get pointer to the end of the file, and then back to the
beginning.
#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
using namespace std;
int main () {
int length;
char * buffer;
ifstream is;
is.open ("test.txt", ios::binary );
// get length of file:
is.seekg (0, ios::end);
length = is.tellg();
is.seekg (0, ios::beg);
// allocate memory:
buffer = new char [length];
// read data as a block:
is.read (buffer,length);
is.close();
cout.write (buffer,length);
delete[] buffer;
return 0;
}
71. seekp
ostream& seekp ( streampos pos );
ostream& seekp ( streamoff off, ios_base::seekdir dir );
• Set position of put pointer
• Sets the position of the put pointer.
• The put pointer determines the location in
the output sequence where the next
output operation is going to take place.
72. • Parameters
pos: The new position in the stream buffer. This parameter
is an integral value of type streampos.
off: Integral value of type streamoff representing the offset
to be applied relative to an absolute position specified in
the dir parameter.
dir: Seeking direction. It is an object of type
ios_base::seekdir that specifies an absolute
value offset is relative to...
ios_base::beg beginning of the stream buffer
ios_base::cur current position in the stream buffer
ios_base::end end of the stream buffer
73. • Return Value
The function returns *this.
• Errors are signaled by modifying the internal state
flags:
flag error
eofbit -
The parameter(s) describe a
position that could not be
failbit reached.
An error other than the above
badbit happened.
74. // position of put pointer
#include <fstream>
using namespace std;
int main () {
long pos;
ofstream outfile;
outfile.open ("test.txt");
outfile.write ("This is an apple",16); pos=outfile.tellp();
outfile.seekp (pos-7);
outfile.write (" sam",4);
outfile.close();
return 0;
}
75. • In this previous example,
seekp is used to move the put pointer
back to a position 7 characters before the
end of the first output operation.
The final content of the file shall be:
This is a sample
