A little helper function to load an OpenGL shader file (can be any text formatted file) to a C-String. The returned string has to be deleted by the caller when not needed anymore. You need: #include <iostream> #include <fstream>

LoadShaderFromFile.cpp

const char* ReadShaderFileToMemory(const char* filePath)
{
	const char * shaderFileBuffer = NULL;

	std::ifstream inSdrFileStream(filePath);
	if(inSdrFileStream)
	{
		// Get length of shader file by seeking and telling (offset of 0)
		inSdrFileStream.seekg(0, inSdrFileStream.end);
		unsigned long fileLength = (unsigned long) inSdrFileStream.tellg() + 1;
		inSdrFileStream.seekg(0, inSdrFileStream.beg);

		std::cout << "Shader File: Reading " << fileLength << " chars...\n";

		// Read shader file into a memory buffer (array)
		char * inputFileBuffer = new char[fileLength];
		memset(inputFileBuffer, 0, fileLength);
		inSdrFileStream.read(inputFileBuffer, fileLength);
		inputFileBuffer[fileLength-1] = 0;

		// Close file and print status
		if(inputFileBuffer)
		{
			std::cout << "... Read successfully.\n\n";
			std::cout << "---------------------------------\n";
			std::cout << inputFileBuffer << std::endl;
			std::cout << "---------------------------------\n";
			std::cout << std::endl;
			inSdrFileStream.close();
		}
		else
		{
			std::cout << "... Error: Only " << inSdrFileStream.gcount() << " could be read!\n";
			inSdrFileStream.close();
			delete [] inputFileBuffer;
			return NULL;
		}

		// Hand over file contents to a const pointer
		shaderFileBuffer = inputFileBuffer;
		inputFileBuffer = NULL;
	}
	else
	{
		std::cout << "Shader File: Error. Not found!" << std::endl;
		return NULL;
	}

	return shaderFileBuffer;
}