Read from cin or a file

Question

When I try to compile the code

istream in;
if (argc==1)
        in=cin;
else
{
        ifstream ifn(argv[1]);
        in=ifn;
}

gcc fails, complaining that operator= is private. Is there any way to set an istream to different values based on a condition?

Answer 1

You could use a pointer for in, e.g.:

istream *in;
ifstream ifn;

if (argc==1) {
     in=&cin;
} else {
     ifn.open(argv[1]);
     in=&ifn;
}