Checkbook File

[MrHatchi87]

Hey everyone, I need a little help understanding some of the logic or code behind a project I have to do. I need to read a checkbook register file one line at a time, and calculate the balance by adding deposits and subtracting checks.

I've prompted the user to enter the file, but I need to ignore whitespace so if they put a space, it doesn't cause a mess. I thought that skipws would do that, but I might not be using it right.

Another catch is that I must remove/ignore the colons from the input lines separating each line into four separate pieces of data: the word "deposit," a date, the recipient of the check (or a dash), and the amount of the check or deposit.

Here's what the input would like like as a test case:
deposit:July 7:-:300
416:July 8:Albertsons:15.85
417:7/9:Checker Auto:19.95

Lines that begin with "deposit" represent deposits; the fourth field represents the deposit amount and is added to the balance. The third field of a deposit only contains a dash. ones that begin with a number represent checks; the fourth field represents the check amount and is subtracted form the balance.

The hard part im understanding is the skipws for the whitespace, and the adding/subtracting lines. Here's my code thus far:

#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <iomanip>
#include <string>
using namespace std;

string FileName;
void starline();

int main()
{
	cout << "Enter a file name (including extension): " << endl;
	cin >> skipws >> FileName;
	ifstream input(FileName);

	if (!input.good())
	{
		cerr << "Unable to open file" << endl;
		exit(1);
	}
	
	while (!input.eof())
	{
		starline();
        char    deposit[15];
        input.getline(deposit, 15, ':');
        cout << left << setw(15) << deposit;
        char    date[15];
        input.getline(date, 15, ':');
        cout << setw(15) << date;
        char    place[15];
        input.getline(place, 15, ':');
        cout << setw(15) << place;
        char money[15];
        input.getline(money,15);
        cout << right << setw(15) << "$   " << money << right << endl;
		starline();
	}



	return 0;
}

void starline() 
{
for(int j=0; j<65; j++) 
cout << '-';
cout << endl;
}

It runs fine, there aren't any errors, just need help understanding what is being asked.

[MrHatchi87]

I know it seems like a lot of reading, but I just need help understanding how to skip or ignore the whitespace from the input from the user and to add the values... I'm lost. Can anyone point me in the right direction? I'm not asking for the assignment to be done for me