The standard white-space characters are the following:
space (' '), form feed ('\f'), new-line ('\n'), carriage return ('\r'),
horizontal tab ('\t'), and vertical tab ('\v'). In the "C" locale, 
isspace returns true only for the standard white-space characters.

while (ptrFirst) { // probably, must be *ptrFirst

string word;
while (file >> word) {
    // process word
}

while (ptrFirst) {

int search (int list [], int size, int key)
{
    int pos = 0;
    while (pos < size && list[pos] != key)
        pos++;
    if (pos == size)
        pos = -1;
    return pos;
}

bool search(char ** words, int numWords, char * currentWord)
{
    bool found = false;
    int i = 0;
    //compare current word to each word already in array
    while(!found && i < numWords)
       //if current word is found
       if(strcmp(currentWord, words[i]) == 0)
         //change flag to end loop
         found = true;
    return found;
}

#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <cstdlib>
#include <string>
#include <iomanip>
using namespace std;
 
    int const wordLength = 21;
	int const Num = 100;
	int const fileSize = 255;
 
	struct words
	{
		char word[wordLength];
		int count;	
	};
 
 
 
int storeFile( char [], words []);
void wordSearchSetup(char[], int, words[]);
int wordSearch(char[], int, words[]);
 
void main ()
{
    int count;
	char fileName[fileSize];
 
	cout << "Please enter the name of the file you wish to open: "<< endl;
	cin.getline(fileName,fileSize);
 
	words array[Num];
 
	count = storeFile (fileName, array);
 
 
	cin.ignore();
}
 
int storeFile (char fileName[], words array[] )
{	
	int count = 0;
	int i = 0;
    ifstream inFile;
    char line [Num];
 
	inFile.open(fileName);
 
	while (inFile.getline(line,Num))
	{   
     strncpy(array[i].word, line, wordLength);
	 count++;
	 i++;  
	}   
 
	inFile.close(); 
 
	wordSearchSetup( fileName, count, array);
   return count; 
}
 
void wordSearchSetup(char fileName[], int count, words array[])
{
	char line[Num];
	int i = 0;
	int size;
	ifstream inFile;
	inFile.open(fileName);
 
	while (inFile.getline(line,Num))
	 size = wordSearch(line, count, array);
 
	cout << size << endl;
 
 
}
 
 
int wordSearch( char line[], int count, words array[])
{
	int i = count;
 
	while (i)
	{
		if (strcmp(line, array[i-1].word) == 0) 
		{ 
			array[i-1].count++; 
			return  count;   
        }
           i-- ; 
	}
 
	strcpy(array[count].word, line) ; 
	array[count].count = 1 ; 
	return count+1;   
}