How to copy a certain number of chars from a file to a vector the STL-way?

Question

If I want to copy the contents of a file to a vector, I can do it like that:

std::ifstream file("path_to_file");
std::vector<char> buffer(std::istream_iterator<char>(file), 
                         std::istream_iterator<char>());

My question is, how would I do this if I want to copy only the first n chars?

Edit I could write my own version of copy, but is there a way to do this using only existing components?

Answer 1

As Alexander points out, the fastest way would be

std::vector<char> buffer(n);
file.read(&buffer[0], n);

In C++0x, you can use buffer.data() instead of &buffer[0]; the latter has undefined behavior if n == 0.

Answer 2

As was noted by Steve, this would need copy_n(), which, due to an oversight, isn't in the current standard library, but will be in C++1x. You can implement one yourself easily, here's one I believe to be correct:

template<class InIt, class OutIt> 
OutIt copy_n(InIt src, OutIt dest, size_t n) 
{
  if (!n) return dest;
  *dest = *src;
  while (--n)
    *++dest = *++src;
  return ++dest; 
} 

Note that std::copy_n() presumes the input iterator to be able to deliver n objects. When reading from a file, this could be problematic.

---

Absent of std::copy_n(), you could use std::generate_n.

template< typename InIt >
struct input_generator {
  typedef std::iterator_traits<InIt>::value_type value_type;

  input_generator(InIt begin, InIt end) begin_(begin), end_(end) {}

  value_type operator()()
  {
    assert(it_ != end);
    return *it_++;
  }

  Init begin_;
  Init end_;
};


std::vector<char> buffer;
buffer.reserve(42);

std::generate_n( std::back_inserter(buffer)
               , 42
               , input_generator(std::istream_iterator<char>(file))
               , input_generator(std::istream_iterator<char>()) );

---

However, I don't see this as an advantage over reading directly from the file as avakar showed.

Answer 3

The "STL way" is to use copy_n, which is in the STL but not the C++ standard.