Question

How to use sscanf function to read a text file

Asked by: cplau

Hi All,

I am using sscanf function to read a text file with syntax like this
       1 Record One With Space
       2 RecordTwo
       3 Record Three with space

How can I use the sscanf function to acheive this?
IntegerVar[0]=1, FieldContent[0] = "Record One With Space"
IntegerVar[1]=2, FieldContent[1] = "RecordTwo"
IntegerVar[2]=3, FieldContent[2] = "Record Three with space"

Please advise. Thanks

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Asked On
2007-08-30 at 02:48:28ID22796775
Tags

sscanf

,

use

,

how

Topic

C++ Programming Language

Participating Experts
3
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Answers

 

by: josgoodPosted on 2007-08-30 at 03:56:07ID: 19798847

This answer is crude in its handling of string sizes (fixed 256), but serves to illustrate one way.

The problem, of course, is that sscanf stops at a space, so you either have to break the remaining text (after the number) into several strings and the reassemble them, or carve off the number from the input string and parse it separately.  Given your desire to use sscanf, I chose the approach below.

There are much better ways to do this sort of thing.  Are you limited to sscanf for some reason?  std::string offers facilities, CString (if you're using MS), etc.  The Boost library offers string tokenizing, among other things.

#include <stdio.h>

void Scan(char* source, int* iResult, char* sResult) {
   char term1[256], term2[256], term3[256], term4[256];
   term1[0] = term2[0] = term3[0] = term4[0] = '\0';
   sscanf(source,"%d%s %s %s %s",iResult,term1,term2,term3,term4);
   sprintf(sResult,"%s %s %s %s",term1,term2,term3,term4);
}

void main() {
   char rec1[] = "1 Record One With Space";
   char rec2[] = "2 RecordTwo";
   char rec3[] = "3 Record Three with space";
   int IntegerVar[3];
   char FieldContent[3][256];
   
   Scan(rec1,&IntegerVar[0],&FieldContent[0][0]);
   Scan(rec2,&IntegerVar[1],&FieldContent[1][0]);
   Scan(rec3,&IntegerVar[2],&FieldContent[2][0]);
}

 

by: unmeshdavePosted on 2007-08-31 at 18:13:16ID: 19812187

curious to know y u need to use sscanf instead of fscanf? if you are reading a file, you should use fscanf.

 

by: cplauPosted on 2007-09-10 at 20:22:24ID: 19865694

Hi All,

Other than sscanf function, what other functions can I use to achieve what I want listed at first?
Please advise. Thanks.

 

by: josgoodPosted on 2007-09-10 at 21:18:47ID: 19866054

Here's one way of many possible ways, using streams.

#include <fstream>
#include <iostream>
#include <sstream>

int main() {
   std::ifstream file("Data.txt");
   std::string aLine;
   while( getline(file, aLine, '\n')) {
      std::istringstream iss(aLine);      // istringstream provides convenient extraction
      int value;
      iss >> value;                       // whitespace-terminated value
      std::string theRest, section;
      while (!iss.eof()) { iss >> section; theRest += " "; theRest += section; }
      std::cout << value << ", " << theRest << std::endl;
   }
}

 

by: unmeshdavePosted on 2007-09-10 at 21:20:23ID: 19866061

if u already know the contents of file, u can use fscanf.

 

by: Infinity08Posted on 2007-09-10 at 23:52:38ID: 19866536

>> Other than sscanf function, what other functions can I use to achieve what I want listed at first?

sscanf is fine, provided you use something like :

        char *my_str = "1 Record One With Space";
        int the_number = 0;
        char the_str[256] = { 0 };
        sscanf(my_str, "%d %[^\r\n]", &the_number, the_str);

But the C++ way would be to use streams like josgood showed in his last post.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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