Thanks for the help, i couldnt get your code to work, i got a Lvalue required error in borland, so i modified it a bit.
Code:
  int counter_ph = 0;  // counter for array locations
  int counter = 0;  // counter for array locations
  ifstream name_database; // input stream
  name_database.open("names.txt");
  while (! name_database.eof())   // while the stream isn't at the end of the file
  {
     name_database >> names[counter];
     counter++; // advance the counter
  }
  ifstream phone_database;    // input stream
  phone_database.open("phonenumbers.txt");
  while (! phone_database.eof() )   // while the stream isn't at the end of the file
  {
     phone_database >> phone_number[counter_ph];
     counter_ph++;  // advance the counter
  }
what do you think csl