C++ : How to read a file line by line into a vector ?

In this article we will discuss how to read a file line by line and put them in a vector or perform some other operation each line.

Reading File line by line

First open the file i.e.

// Open the File
std::ifstream in("file.txt");

Now keep reading next line using getline() and push it in vector function until end of file i.e.

std::string str;
// Read the next line from File untill it reaches the end.
while (std::getline(in, str))
{
	// Line contains string of length > 0 then save it in vector
	if(str.size() > 0)
		vecOfStrs.push_back(str);
}

Complete example is as follows:

#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <string>
#include <vector>

/*
 * It will iterate through all the lines in file and
 * put them in given vector
 */
bool getFileContent(std::string fileName, std::vector<std::string> & vecOfStrs)
{

	// Open the File
	std::ifstream in(fileName.c_str());

	// Check if object is valid
	if(!in)
	{
		std::cerr << "Cannot open the File : "<<fileName<<std::endl;
		return false;
	}

	std::string str;
	// Read the next line from File untill it reaches the end.
	while (std::getline(in, str))
	{
		// Line contains string of length > 0 then save it in vector
		if(str.size() > 0)
			vecOfStrs.push_back(str);
	}
	//Close The File
	in.close();
	return true;
}


int main()
{
	std::vector<std::string> vecOfStr;

	// Get the contents of file in a vector
	bool result = getFileContent("example.cpp", vecOfStr);

	if(result)
	{
		// Print the vector contents
		for(std::string & line : vecOfStr)
			std::cout<<line<<std::endl;
	}
}

Reading file line by line and performing operations on each line

Many times we encounter scenarios where we need to read a file line by line and perform some operation on each line like,

• Search something in each line.
• Modify the content
• Store the string to some container etc.

We can a make a generic function that will accept a callback or function pointer along with File name i.e.

/*
 * It will iterate through all the lines in file and
 * call the given callback on each line.
 */
bool iterateFile(std::string fileName, std::function<void (const std::string & )> callback)

It will read the file line by line and will call the given function on each line.

Checkout complete example as follows,

#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <string>
#include <vector>
#include <functional>

/*
 * It will iterate through all the lines in file and
 * call the given callback on each line.
 */
bool iterateFile(std::string fileName, std::function<void (const std::string & )> callback)
{

	// Open the File
	std::ifstream in(fileName.c_str());

	// Check if object is valid
	if(!in)
	{
		std::cerr << "Cannot open the File : "<<fileName<<std::endl;
		return false;
	}

	std::string str;
	// Read the next line from File untill it reaches the end.
	while (std::getline(in, str))
	{
		// Call the given callback
		callback(str);
	}
	//Close The File
	in.close();
	return true;
}


int main()
{
	std::vector<std::string> vecOfStr;

	//Call given lambda function for each line in file
	bool res = iterateFile("example.cpp", [&](const std::string & str){
												// Add to vector
												vecOfStr.push_back(str);
											});

	if(res)
	{
		for(std::string & line : vecOfStr)
			std::cout<<line<<std::endl;
	}
}

To compile the above examples use following command on linux,

g++ –std=c++11 example.cpp