Creating a Basic Text Editor Program in C++
In this tutorial, we will learn how to create a simple text editor using the C++ programming language. This text editor will allow the user to input, save, and display text using basic file operations.
Objective:
The objective of this project is to demonstrate how C++ can be used to create a basic text editor that can read and write text to a file. We will cover how to use file handling functions like ofstream
and ifstream
to manage files and process user input.
Code:
#include #include #include using namespace std; void displayMenu() { cout << "Simple Text Editor" << endl; cout << "1. Write Text" << endl; cout << "2. Read Text" << endl; cout << "3. Exit" << endl; } void writeTextToFile() { string text; ofstream outFile("editor.txt"); cout << "Enter text to save to file (Type 'exit' to stop):" << endl; while (true) { getline(cin, text); if (text == "exit") break; outFile << text << endl; } outFile.close(); cout << "Text saved to editor.txt" << endl; } void readTextFromFile() { string line; ifstream inFile("editor.txt"); if (inFile.is_open()) { cout << "Text from file:" << endl; while (getline(inFile, line)) { cout << line << endl; } inFile.close(); } else { cout << "Unable to open file!" << endl; } } int main() { int choice; while (true) { displayMenu(); cout << "Enter your choice: "; cin >> choice; cin.ignore(); // to clear the input buffer after reading choice switch (choice) { case 1: writeTextToFile(); break; case 2: readTextFromFile(); break; case 3: cout << "Exiting Text Editor." << endl; return 0; default: cout << "Invalid choice! Please choose again." << endl; } } return 0; }
Program Explanation:
This program implements a simple text editor in C++ that allows the user to perform three tasks:
- Write Text: The user can input text, and it will be saved to a file named
editor.txt
. - Read Text: The user can view the contents of the
editor.txt
file. - Exit: The program will terminate.
The program uses file handling features of C++ such as ofstream
(output file stream) to write to a file, and ifstream
(input file stream) to read from the file. It also uses simple getline()
function to capture multi-line user input.
How to Run the Program:
- Open your C++ IDE or text editor.
- Copy and paste the code provided above into a new file.
- Save the file with a
.cpp
extension (for example,TextEditor.cpp
). - Compile the program using your IDE or the command line.
- Run the compiled program.
- You can choose to write or read from the file based on the displayed menu.