Question

I have a text file that holds values like this:

30 Text
21 Text
12 Text 
1  Text
3  Text

I want to read this into a 2D array to keep the number and the text identifier together. Once I’ve done this I want to sort this into ascending order, as the text file will be unsorted.

What is the best way to go about this in C++, should I put it in an Array? My objective is to just get the top 3 highest values from the text file. Is there a data structure that would be better suited to this or a better way to go about it? I can structure the text file anyway, its not a concrete format if that should be changed.

TIA

Answer 1

If you only want the top three values, the most efficient way may be to define three variables (or a three-element array), read the file line-by-line, and if a newly read line belongs in the top three, put it there.

But if you want to use containers, I’d go with a std::vector and use std::sort, assuming that the file is small enough that all the data fits in memory.