[C++] How would you go about having a save system?

[NeatSquidYT]

Hi,

My goal is to have a save system that saves to a file for future use, but cannot be easily modified by a user.
I've seen people use structs for this, but not sure how a file output world work for that.

[Nuluvius]

If obfuscation is the intention then the structure of the file is completely irrelevant, though for the sake of clarity you might probably want to use XML - depends on your implementation details really. To obfuscate/protect the content is really the task of some form of encryption layer...

[PampaZiya]

Yes that's called a binary file. Mainly you will have a structure of how the data you will enter. For ex if you want the file to have a list of clients, you will create a structure, for ex:

struct client {int num;char name[15];char lastname[25];double account;};

and enter the data accordingly to the file.. 

 

For ex, create a temp Client called x  (Client x;)

 

The file will be an ofstream, (ofstream a ("ClientData.bin", ios::binary); )

 

Now let the user keep entering clients until he enters -1 as an account number.

cout<<"Enter the account number: ";cin>>x.num;while (x.num != -1){cin>>x.name>>x.lastname>>x.account;a.write(reinterpret_cast<char*>(&x),sizeof(client)); // THIS is how you write to the filecout<<"Enter the account number: ";cin>>x.num;}

Of course, this is just an ex, read more about binary files online and seek what you want to do with them.

[PampaZiya]

If obfuscation is the intention then the structure of the file is completely irrelevant, though for the sake of clarity you might probably want to use XML - depends on your implementation details really. To obfuscate/protect the content is really the task of some form of encryption layer...

 

I'm pretty sure he meant binary files.

[Nuluvius]

I'm pretty sure he meant binary files.

 

Which can be manipulated quite easily. You are drawing an assumption.

[Nineshadow]

You could do some encoding and compression, maybe even encrypt it.

[Nuluvius]

Or as a compromise just XOR the bytes that might be enough to dissuade the average cretin but don't count on it.