i know this is a simple, question, but its so simple that i cant find the answer. i want to be able to input an entire line from a text file into a string. i know that ifstream only does until there is a space. lets say the string is "Hello world!": ifstream in_file; in_file.open("foo.txt"); in_file >> string; string would only be "hello" would using something like getline(in_file, string); work to get my "Hello world!" in string?

getline is exactly what you need.