I would create a class and define an input operator:
struct Person
{
std::string name;
std::string age;
std::string salary;
std::string hoursWorked;
std::string randomText;
friend std::istream& operator>>(std::istream& str, Person& data)
{
std::string line;
if (std::getline(str,line))
{
std::stringstream iss(line);
if ( std::getline(iss, data.name, ':') &&
std::getline(iss, data.age, '-') &&
std::getline(iss, data.salary, ',') &&
std::getline(iss, data.hoursWorked, '[') &&
std::getline(iss, data.randomText, ']'))
{ /* OK: All read operations worked */}
else
{
// One operation failed.
// So set the state on the main stream
// to indicate failure.
str.setstate(std::ios::failbit);
}
}
return str;
}
};
Now your code looks like this:
Person data;
while(readFile >> data)
{
// Do Stuff
}
PS. I noticed you were using string and ifstream without the std::. This suggests you have using namespace std; in your code. Please don't do that. see Why is “using namespace std;” considered bad practice?
Don't explictly close() a file unless you are going to check that it worked (or are going the re-open). Prefer to let the destructor do the closing (that way it is exception safe). See: My C++ code involving an fstream failed review