How do I read long lines from a text file in C++?

Question

I am using the following code for reading lines from a text-file. What is the best method for handling the case where the line is greater than the limit SIZE_MAX_LINE?

Answer 1

Don't use istream::getline(). It deals with naked character buffers and is therefor prone to errors. Better use std::getline(std::istream&,std::string&, char='\n') from the header:

std::string line;

while(std::getline(xInFile, line)) {
    m_sStream.append(line);
    m_sStream.append('\n'); // getline() consumes '\n'
}