how do I do this

[mjones]

I need to come up with some way to make a program (thing) that will look at a text file modify it and save the modified text file to another place.
The text file is on a network drive and is run every hour.

I need to have the program read the text file and delete everything until it reads a word (the heading of part of the report). Then have it save the remaining report to a text file on the desktop of the computer that ran it.

Our programmer just quit and the only language I can write in (sort of) is C++. Any help would be appreciated.

[redhead]

Something like this in C

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#define BUFF_LENGTH 256

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
  FILE* in_file, out_file;
  char buffer[BUFF_LENGTH +1];
  int skip = 0;
  if(argc != 4)
    {
      printf("Usage: %s <in_file> <out_file> <delim_word>\n", argv[0]);
      return -1;
    }
  if(!(in_file = fopen(argv[1], "r")))
    {
      printf("Error opening input file %s\n", argv[1]);
      return -1;
    }
  if(!(out_file = fopen(argv[2], "w")))
    {
      printf("Error opening output file %s\n", argv[2]);
      fclose(in_file);
      return -1;
    }
  while(!feof(in_file))
    {
      if(!fgets(buffer, BUFF_LENGTH, in_file))
	{
	  printf("Error reading from file %s\n", argv[1]);
	  fclose(in_file);
	  fclose(out_file);
	  return -1;
	}
      if(!skip)
	if(strstr(buffer, argv[3]))
	  skip = 1;
      if(skip)
	if(!fwrite(buffer, strlen(buffer), 1, out_file))
	  {
	    printf("Error writing to file %s\n", argv[2]);
	    fclose(in_file);
	    fclose(out_file);
	    return -1;
	  }
    }
  if(!skip)
    printf("The word \"%s\" wasn't found in file %s\n", argv[3], argv[1]);
  fclose(in_file);
  fclose(out_file);
  return 0;
}

Note: None of the above code has been tested, not even compiled, but it should work

[redhead]

Here is the same example in C++, if you're more comfortable with C++

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

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
  std::string buffer;
  bool skip = false;
  if(argc != 4)
    {
      std::cout << "Usage: " << argv[0] 
		<< " <in_file> <out_file> <delim_word>" << std::endl;
      return -1;
    }
  std::ifstream in_file(argv[1], std::ios::in);
  if(!in_file)
    {
      std::cout << "Error opening input file " << argv[1] << std::endl;
      return -1;
    }
  std::ofstream out_file(argv[2], std::ios::out);
  if(!out_file)
    {
      std::cout << "Error opening output file " << argv[2] << std::endl;
      in_file.close();
      return -1;
    }
  while(!in_file.eof())
    {
      std::getline(in_file, buffer);
      if(in_file.fail())
	{
	  std::cout << "Error reading from file " << argv[1] << std::endl;
	  in_file.close();
	  out_file.close();
	  return -1;
	}
      if(!skip)
	if(std::string::npos != buffer.find(argv[3], 0))
	  skip = true;
      if(skip)
	{
	  out_file << buffer << std::endl;
	  if(out_file.fail())
	    {
	      std::cout << "Error writing to file " << argv[2] << std::endl;
	      in_file.close();
	      out_file.close();
	      return -1;
	    }
	}
    }
  if(!skip)
    std::cout << "The word \"" << argv[3] << "\" wasn't found in " 
	      << argv[1] << std::endl;
  in_file.close();
  out_file.close();
  return 0;
}

Note: None of the above code has been tested, not even compiled.

If you'd like to come up with your own routine, the eof description gives a very good example.

[mjones]

Sweet, thanks red, the c++ looks way more familiar.