std::ifstream t; int length; t.open("file.txt"); // open input file t.seekg(0, std::ios::end); // go to the end length = t.tellg(); // report location (this is the length) t.seekg(0, std::ios::beg); // go back to the beginning buffer = newchar[length]; // allocate memory for a buffer of appropriate dimension t.read(buffer, length); // read the whole file into the buffer t.close(); // close file handle // ... do stuff with buffer here ...