Question

I dont understand what the 2nd adress in my program is`(readurl),
I found it out by cout’ing readurl(ifstream)
thank you for help/declarations! (The adress from readurl is’nt the same as cout’ing readurl)
Code:

#include <fstream>
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <tchar.h>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
    string file; //filepath
    int sel; //menu-switch
    cout << "Select your Language!"<<endl;
    cout << "1:German"<<endl;
    cout << "2:English"<<endl;
    cout << "Language: ";
    cin  >> sel;
    getchar();
    system("cls");
    switch(sel)
    {
        case 2:
            cout << "Hello!"<<endl;
            cout << "Select your File: ";
            cin  >> file;
            getchar();
            system("cls");
            break;
        case 1:
            cout << "Hallo!"<<endl;
            cout << "Waehle deine Datei aus: ";
            cin  >> file;
            getchar();
            system("cls");
    }
    ifstream readurl(file.c_str());
    char url[CHAR_MAX];
    while(!readurl.getline(url,CHAR_MAX,'#'))
    {
        readurl.ignore();
    }
    cout << endl;
    cout << &readurl<<endl<<readurl<<endl; // What is readurl?
    cout << "File: (Sentences with # will be ignored)"<<endl;
    cout << url;
    getchar();
}

The text file looks like this:

This will be readed
TEST
TEST
TEST
#This wont be readed 
#This can be a comment.
#lsdjpofiuhpdsouhsdih+g

Answer 1

The expression &readurl returns the address of where readurl is in memory. The operator & when used like this is called the address-of operator.

When you write out readurl you are actually writing the actual object instance, and in this case it’s not actually a valid output operation. You should have gotten warning about this when compiling, and the value you get from this can be anything.

---

The output from std::cout << readurl is probably the same as the operator void* override, and is not a valid address.