Reading a field out of a data file

file.cpp

/*

Data File format looks like this: 
FirstName|LastName|Address|City|Zipcode|Occupation|Birth

*/

ifstream myFile;
myFile.open(filepath);

string s_line, field; //field is the text between the pipes

while (!myFile.eof()) { //while not at the end of the file...
    int pipeCount = 0;
    getline(myFile, s_line); // grab the entire line from the file

    stringstream line(s_line); //build a stringstream instance of it

    while (line.good()) { //while not at the end of line...
        getline(line, field, '|'); //grab each piece of text between the delimeter
        pipeCount++; //keep track of how many pipes you've traversed, or which column you're in

        if (pipeCount == 4) { // figure out how many columns over your zip code is
            int zip_code = stoi(field, field.length()); //convert the string of ##### into an int
            myVectorOfZipCodes.push_back(zip_code); // save all the zip codes in a vector or whatever you want
            break; // exit local while loop and proceed to next line.
        }
        field.clear(); 
    }
}
myFile.close();