How do I read an entire file into a std::string in C++?

Question

How do I read a file into a std::string, i.e., read the whole file at once?

Text or binary mode should be specified by the caller. The solution should b

Answer 1

#include 
#include 

using namespace std;

string GetStreamAsString(const istream& in)
{
    stringstream out;
    out << in.rdbuf();
    return out.str();
}

string GetFileAsString(static string& filePath)
{
    ifstream stream;
    try
    {
        // Set to throw on failure
        stream.exceptions(fstream::failbit | fstream::badbit);
        stream.open(filePath);
    }
    catch (system_error& error)
    {
        cerr << "Failed to open '" << filePath << "'\n" << error.code().message() << endl;
        return "Open fail";
    }

    return GetStreamAsString(stream);
}

usage:

const string logAsString = GetFileAsString(logFilePath);