c++ - Extracting Data in different formats in a Text File -

i'm having issue reading in data , i've been researching past hour no better conclusion. pasted below snippets of code , file i'm reading form. file opened , struct declarations shown below well. i'm confident solution simple , i'm overthinking due working on project long here's explanation.

the data file gets opened , data gets read appropiate place until while(infile>>temp.startdistance.....) part. goal @ point read in zombies stated explicitly in each round after number of random zombies read( see data file format). in previous cases of reading in data, used getline, sscanf on c string version of string received getline extract appropiate data. since explicit zombies formatted white space separating data, wanted use >> operater extract data. i've read it's poor practice mix getline , believe in case make sense. there no point in running getline(),strcpy(), , sscanf() have o(n) complexity when 1 0(n) function (>>) suffice (this tested speed).

my issue reads in explicit zombies in round 1. however, when reaches "---" meaning new round start @ beginning of while loop, exits out of both loops entirely. i've researched flags , thought failbit occur , program counter go initial while loop read in new round. i've tried using peek() no success , shortcut make me fail test cases potentially.

i'm focusing on fixing final while loop rather redoing entire code listed below. if more information needed, i'll glad add more. !

struct zombiesperround{     unsigned int round;     unsigned int numzombies; };   struct zombie{     unsigned int startdistance;     unsigned int speed;     unsigned int health;     string name; };  string line; vector <zombiesperround> randomzombies; list <zombie> masterlist; ifstream infile(inputfile); if(infile.is_open()){     //read in player information     getline(infile,line);     char *read=new char[line.length()+1];     strcpy(read,line.c_str());     sscanf(read,"quiver_capacity: %u",&settings.numarrows);     delete read;     getline(infile,line);     read=new char[line.length()+1];     strcpy(read,line.c_str());     sscanf(read,"random_seed: %u",&settings.randomseed);     srand(settings.randomseed);     delete read;     getline(infile,line);     read=new char[line.length()+1];     strcpy(read,line.c_str());     sscanf(read,"max_rand_distance: %u",&settings.maxdistance);     delete read;     getline(infile,line);     read=new char[line.length()+1];     strcpy(read,line.c_str());     sscanf(read,"max_rand_speed: %u",&settings.maxspeed);     delete read;     getline(infile,line);     read=new char[line.length()+1];     strcpy(read,line.c_str());     sscanf(read,"max_rand_health: %u",&settings.zombiehealth);     delete read;     getline(infile,line);     read=new char[line.length()+1];     strcpy(read,line.c_str());     sscanf(read,"player_health: %u",&settings.playerhealth);     delete read;     while(!infile.fail()){         getline(infile,line);         if(!line.substr(0,1).compare("-"))             continue;         zombiesperround randzombie;         read=new char[line.length()+1];         strcpy(read,line.c_str());         sscanf(read,"round: %u",&randzombie.round);         delete read;         getline(infile,line);         read=new char[line.length()+1];         strcpy(read,line.c_str());         sscanf(read,"num_zombies: %u",&randzombie.numzombies);         delete read;         randomzombies.push_back(randzombie);         zombie temp;         //read in explicit zombies         while(infile >> temp.startdistance >> temp.speed >> temp.health >> temp.name){             masterlist.push_back(temp);         }     } } infile.close();  //test1.txt quiver_capacity: 10 random_seed: 2049231 max_rand_distance: 50 max_rand_speed: 60 max_rand_health: 1 player_health: 10 --- round: 1 num_zombies: 25 150 300 15 foxmccloud 2 3 6 falcolombardi 100 1 100 slippytoad --- round: 3 num_zombies: 50 20 10 20 darklink 

it seems reading in 2 different ways (the getline , >>) bad input stream (something don't quite understand honest).

i've fixed problem this:

while(!infile.fail()){     getline(infile,line);     if(!line.substr(0,1).compare("-"))         getline(infile,line);      zombiesperround randzombie;     read=new char[line.length()+1];     strcpy(read,line.c_str());     sscanf(read,"round: %u",&randzombie.round);     delete read;     getline(infile,line);     read=new char[line.length()+1];     strcpy(read,line.c_str());     sscanf(read,"num_zombies: %u",&randzombie.numzombies);     delete read;     randomzombies.push_back(randzombie);     zombie temp;     //read in explicit zombies     while(getline(infile,line)){         if(!line.substr(0,1).compare("-"))             break;         stringstream  ss(line);         ss >> temp.startdistance >> temp.speed >> temp.health >> temp.name;         masterlist.push_back(temp);         infile.clear();     } } 

} infile.close();

i'm pretty sure there more elegant / efficient ways it, tested file posted , seems work though.

hope helps..