Question

So i have a gui, designed using QT, c++. I have large amount of data in a text file that I would like to read in this fashion:

load first 50 lines, when the user scrolls down load next 50 lines and so one. When the user scrolls up load previous 50 lines.

Thank you.

Answer 1

The easiest solution would be to load the file into memory and manipulate it from there:

std::vector<std::string>    lines;

std::string  line;
while(std::getline(file,line)
{
    lines.push_back(line);
}

If the file is way to large.
Then you need to build an index of the file that tells you exactly where each line starts.

std::vector<std::streampos>    index;
index.push_back(file.tellg());

std::string  line;
while(std::getline(file,line)
{
    index.push_back(file.tellg());
}
file.setg(0);
file.clear();  // Resets the EOF flag.

Once you have your index. You can jump around the file and read any particular line.

int jumpTo = 50;
file.seekg(index[jumpTo]); // Jump to line 50.
//
// Read 50 lines. Do not read past the end
// This will set the EOF flag and future reads will fail.
for(int loop=0;loop < 50 && ((jumpTo + loop) < index.size());++loop)
{
    std::string line;
    std::getline(file,line);
}