File Handling in C – A

review
Introduction
 Files are places where data can be stored
permanently.
 Some programs expect the same set of data
to be fed as input every time it is run.
 Cumbersome.
 Better if the data are kept in a file, and the
program reads from the file.
 Programs generating large volumes of output.
 Difficult to view on the screen.
 Better to store them in a file for later viewing/
processing
Introduction
 Data files
 When you use a file to store data for use by a

program, that file usually consists of text

(alphanumeric data) and is therefore called a
text file.
 Can be created, updated, and processed by C

programs
 Are used for permanent storage of large

amounts of data
 Storage of data in variables and arrays is only
temporary

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Files and Streams
 C views each file as a sequence of bytes
 File ends with the end-of-file marker
 Stream created when a file is opened
 Provide communication channel between files
and programs
 Opening a file returns a pointer to a FILE
structure

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Basic File Operations

 Opening a file
 Reading data from a file
 Writing data to a file
 Closing a file

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 Opening a File
 A file must be “opened” before it can be used.
FILE *fp;
:
fp = fopen (filename, mode);
 fp is declared as a pointer to the data type FILE.
 filename is a string - specifies the name of the file.
 fopen returns a pointer to the file which is used in all
subsequent file operations.
 mode is a string which specifies the purpose of opening the
file:
“r” :: open the file for reading only
“w” :: open the file for writing only
“a” :: open the file for appending data to it

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 MODES
 r - open a file in read-mode, set the pointer to the beginning of the file.

 w - open a file in write-mode, set the pointer to the beginning of the file.
 a - open a file in write-mode, set the pointer to the end of the file.
 rb - open a binary-file in read-mode, set the pointer to the beginning of the file.
 wb - open a binary-file in write-mode, set the pointer to the beginning of the file.
 ab - open a binary-file in write-mode, set the pointer to the end of the file.
 r+ - open a file in read/write-mode, if the file does not exist, it will not be created.
 w+ - open a file in read/write-mode, set the pointer to the beginning of the file.
 a+ - open a file in read/append mode.
 r+b - open a binary-file in read/write-mode, if the file does not exist, it will not be created.
 w+b - open a binary-file in read/write-mode, set the pointer to the beginning of the file.
 a+b - open a binary-file in read/append mode.

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Contd.

 Points to note:
 Several files may be opened at the same time.
 For the “w” and “a” modes, if the named file does
not exist, it is automatically created.
 For the “w” mode, if the named file exists, its
contents will be overwritten.

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Examples

FILE *in, *out ;

in = fopen (“mydata.dat”, “r”) ;
out = fopen (“result.dat”, “w”);

FILE *empl ;
char filename[25];
scanf (“%s”, filename);
empl = fopen (filename, “r”) ;

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Closing a File
 After all operations on a file have been completed, it
must be closed.
 Ensures that all file data stored in memory buffers are
properly written to the file.
 General format: fclose (file_pointer) ;
FILE *xyz ;
xyz = fopen (“test.txt”, “w”) ;
…….
fclose (xyz) ;

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Contd
 fclose( FILE pointer )
 Closes specified file

 Performed automatically when program ends

 Good practice to close files explicitly

 system resources are freed.

 Also, you might not find that all the information
that you've written to the file has actually been
written to disk until the file is closed.
 feof( FILE pointer )
 Returns true if end-of-file indicator (no more data to

process) is set for the specified file

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Files and Streams
 Read/Write functions in standard library
 getc
 Reads one character from a file
 Takes a FILE pointer as an argument
 fgetc( stdin ) equivalent to getchar()
 putc
 Writes one character to a file
 Takes a FILE pointer and a character to write as an
argument
 fputc( 'a', stdout ) equivalent to
putchar( 'a' )
 scanf / fprintf
 File processing equivalents of scanf and printf
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 Read/Write Operations on Files
 The simplest file input-output (I/O) function are getc and putc.
 getc is used to read a character from a file and return it.
char ch; FILE *fp;
…..
ch = getc (fp) ;
 getc will return an end-of-file marker EOF, when the end of the

file has been reached.

 putc is used to write a character to a file.
char ch; FILE *fp;
……
putc (ch, fp) ;

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Example :: convert a text file to all
UPPERCASE
main() {
FILE *in, *out ;
char c ;

in = fopen (“infile.dat”, “r”) ;

out = fopen (“outfile.dat”, “w”) ;

while ((c = getc (in)) != EOF)

putc (toupper (c), out);
fclose (in) ;
fclose (out) ;
}

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Contd.

 We can also use the file versions of scanf

and printf, called fscanf and fprintf.
 General format:
fscanf (file_pointer, control_string, list) ;
fprintf (file_pointer, control_string, list) ;
 Examples:
fscanf (fp, “%d %s %f”, &roll, dept_code, &cgpa) ;
fprintf (out, “\nThe result is: %d”, xyz) ;

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Contd.
fprintf
 Used to print to a file
 It is like printf, except first argument is a FILE
pointer (pointer to the file you want to print in)

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Some Points
 How to check EOF condition when using
fscanf?
 Use the function feof
if (feof (fp))
printf (“\n Reached end of file”) ;
 How to check successful open?
 For opening in “r” mode, the file must exist.
if (fp == NULL)
printf (“\n Unable to open file”) ;

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 fread( ) and fwrite( )
size_t fread(void *buffer, size_t numbytes, size_t count, FILE *a_file);

size_t fwrite(void *buffer, size_t numbytes, size_t count, FILE

*a_file);

 Buffer in fread is a pointer to a region of memory that will

receive the data from the file. Buffer in fwrite() is a pointer to
the information that will be written to the file.
 The second argument is the size of the element; it is in bytes.
For example, if you have an array of characters, you would
want to read it in one byte chunks, so numbytes is one. You
can use the sizeof operator to get the size of the various
datatypes; for example, if you have a variable, int x; you can
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Contd..
 The third argument is simply how many elements you
want to read or write; for example, if you pass a 100
element array
 The final argument is simply the file pointer
 Size_t is an unsigned integer.
 fread() returns number of items read and fwrite()
returns number of items written
 To check to ensure the end of file was reached, use
the feof function, which accepts a FILE pointer and
returns true if the end of the file has been reached.

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/* a simple example of using fread and fwrite to read and write an array
of structures
*/
#include <stdio.h>
#include <conio.h>

int main()
{
FILE *fp;
struct prod {
int cat_num;
float cost;
};
typedef struct prod product;

product a[3] = {{2,20.1},{4,40.1},{6,60.1}};

product k, *p = &k;

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fp = fopen("c:\fread1.txt","w+");
// write the entire array into the file pointed to by fp
fwrite(a, sizeof(product), 3, fp);
// prepare for reading from the beginning of the file
rewind(fp);
// read from the file one product at a time
for (i=0; i<3; i++) {
fread(p, sizeof(product), 1, fp);
printf(" product %d, cat_num=%d, cost=%f\n", i,p-
>cat_num,p->cost);
}
getch();
}

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Example: Merge two files

#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{ FILE *fileA, /* first input file */
*fileB, /* second input file */
*fileC; /* output file to be created */
int num1, /* number to be read from first file */
num2; /* number to be read from second file */
int f1, f2;

/* Open files for processing */

fileA = fopen("class1.txt","r");
fileB = fopen("class2.txt","r");
fileC = fopen("class.txt","w");

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 /* As long as there are numbers in both files, read and compare
numbersone by one. Write the smaller number to the output file
and read the next number in the file from which the smaller
number is read. */

f1 = fscanf(fileA, "%d", &num1);

f2 = fscanf(fileB, "%d", &num2);

while ((f1!=EOF) && (f2!=EOF)){

if (num1 < num2){
fprintf(fileC,"%d\n", num1);
f1 = fscanf(fileA, "%d", &num1);
}
else if (num2 < num1) {
fprintf(fileC,"%d\n", num2);
f2 = fscanf(fileB, "%d", &num2);
}
else { /* numbs are equal:read from both files */
fprintf(fileC,"%d\n", num1);
f1 = fscanf(fileA, "%d", &num1);
f2 = fscanf(fileB, "%d", &num2);
}
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 while (f1!=EOF){/* if reached end of second file, read
the remaining numbers from first file and write to
output file */
fprintf(fileC,"%d\n", num1);
f1 = fscanf(fileA, "%d", &num1);
}
while (f2!=EOF){ if reached the end of first file, read
the remaining numbers from second file and write
to output file */
fprintf(fileC,"%d\n", num2);
f2 = fscanf(fileB, "%d", &num2);
}

/* close files */
fclose(fileA);
fclose(fileB);
fclose(fileC);
return 0;
} /* end of main */

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Exercises

1. Write a C language program to read “mark.dat” file containing

rollno, name,marks of three subjects and calculate total mark,
result in grade and store same in “result.dat” file. (Note : Make
use of fread and fwrite functions)
2. Write a C language program to read a cust.dat file containing
meter number, name, current reading & previous reading. Read
the same file. Calculate unit and total amounts according to the
following rules —
Unit rate
0-50 1.00
51-100 1.50
> 100 2.00
Store meter number ,name ,unit & amount in master.dat file.

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