ifstream in function

Hi all. I'm a student learning C++.

I have worked through all of my problems on my latest project except for one.

I have to use a fuction to get input from a file.

I make this call:

getInput (month, rainfall);


and the function is this:

void getInput (int &rmonth, int &rrainfall)
{
//::input(ifstream& inData)
ifstream in_stream("rainInput.txt",ios::cur, ios::in);
//in_stream.open ("rainInput.txt", ifstream::in);
in_stream >> rmonth >> rrainfall;
//in_stream.close();
}
(pardon all of the comments, I was trying a few different things)

What happens is that the file is reopened everytime and data starts right from the beginning again. I tried appending data but that didn't do it.

I tried not re-opening but If I don't declare the file name in the function, in_stream is unidentified.

Yes, I'm very new and this is probably a fairly benign problem.

Thanks in advance.

hm, assuming you had to leave that function parameter as is and could change what arguements it's allowed to take, I'd recommend the following:

Use a file pointer to open the file, but make the file pointer a global variable. Then just use the file pointer in the function. That way, whenever the function exits, it's doesn't close the file pointer.

Thanks guys for the help. I'll give it a try.