CPNM Lecture 17 - File Handling

Mridul Sankar Barik

Jadavpur University

2023

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Introduction

Files are storage abstraction provided by the Operating Systems

Applications generate / require information that need to be written to
/ read from secondary storage in form of data files

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The FILE Structure

A pointer to a structure of type FILE

Contains information about the file
Name of the file
Status
Current position of the file
Creates a buffer area where information is temporarily stored while
being transferred between computer’s memory and a data file

FILE *fp;

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Text vs. Binary Mode

Text mode
Host system may perform transformations on data written to or read
from files; Ex- A new line may be converted to a
line-feed/carriage-return pair
There may not be a one to one relationship between the characters
that are written (or read) and those stored on the external device
Number of characters may not be the same as the number of
characters that is stored on the external device
Binary mode
No character translation occurs
An implementation defined number of null bytes may be appended to a
binary stream

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Opening a File

fopen() function opens a file and returns the file pointer associated
with that file

FILE *fopen(const char *filename, const char *mode)

filename is a string that make up a valid filename and may include a

path specification
mode is a string that determines how the file will be opened
Returns NULL if error

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File Modes I
“r”: Open an existing file for reading only
Fails if the file does not exist or the host system does not permit you to
read
“w”: Open a new file for writing only
Always creates a file, if the file exists its old contents are discarded
“a”: Open an existing file for appending only
Creates the file if it does not exist, otherwise writes new data at the
end of the existing file content

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File Modes II

“r+”: Open an existing file for both reading and writing

“w+”: Open a new file for reading and writing only
If the file exists, it will be destroyed and a new file will be created
“a+”: Open an existing file for reading and appending.
If the file does not exist, a new file will be created
The initial file position for reading is at the beginning of the file, but
output is always appended to the end of the file
The mode string can also include the letter ’b’

FILE * fp;
if((fp=fopen("test", "w"))==NULL){
printf("Cannot open file\n");
exit(0);
}

Mridul Sankar Barik (Jadavpur University) CPNM Lecture 17 - File Handling 2023 7 / 24
Closing a File

fclose() function
Closes a file that was opened by a call to fopen()
Writes any data still remaining in the disk buffer to the file

int fclose(FILE *fp);

Return value of zero signifies a successful close operation

Returns EOF if error

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Character I/O

Writing a character

int fputc(int ch, FILE *fp);

Where fp is the file pointer returned by fopen() and ch is the

character to be output
Returns the character if successful, EOF otherwise
Reading a character

int fgetc(FILE *fp);

Where fp is the file pointer returned by fopen()

Returns an integer containing the character in the low order byte, and
high order byte set to zero
Returns EOF when the end of file has been reached

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Using feof()

int feof(FILE *fp);

Returns true if the end of file has been reached; otherwise it returns
zero

while(!feof(fp)) ch=fgetc(fp);

Can be used for both text and binary files

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Example - Keyboard to Disk

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
int main(int argc, char *argv[]){
FILE *fp;
char ch;
if(argc!=2){
printf("You forgot to enter the filename\n");
exit(0);
}
if((fp=fopen(argv[1], "w"))==NULL){
printf("Cannot open file \n");
exit(0);
}
ch=getchar();
while(ch!='$'){
fputc(ch, fp);
ch=getchar();
}
fclose(fp);
return(0);
}

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Example - Disk to Screen

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

int main(int argc, char *argv[]){

FILE *fp;
char ch;

if(argc!=2){
printf("You forgot to enter the filename\n");
exit(0);
}
if((fp=fopen(argv[1], "r"))==NULL){
printf("Cannot open file \n");
exit(0);
}
ch=fgetc(fp);
while(ch!=EOF){
putchar(ch);
ch=fgetc(fp);
}
fclose(fp);
return(0);
}

Mridul Sankar Barik (Jadavpur University) CPNM Lecture 17 - File Handling 2023 12 / 24
Example - File Copy

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
int main(int argc, char *argv[]){
FILE *in, *out; char ch;
if(argc!=3){
printf("You forgot to enter the filename\n");
exit(0);
}
if((in=fopen(argv[1], "r"))==NULL){
printf("Cannot open source file \n");
exit(0);
}
if((out=fopen(argv[2], "w"))==NULL){
printf("Cannot open destination file \n");
exit(0);
}
do{
ch=fgetc(in);
if(feof(in))
break;
fputc(ch, out);
}while(1);
fclose(in); fclose(out);
return(0);
}

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String I/O

int fputs(const char *str, FILE *fp);

If successful returns zero, EOF otherwise

char *fgets(char *str, int length, FILE *fp);

Reads a string from the specified file until either a newline character is
read or length-1 characters have been read
If newline is read it will be part of the string
The resulting string will be NULL terminated

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The rewind() Function

Resets the file position pointer indicator to the beginning of the file
specified as its arguments

void rewind(FILE *fp);

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Example - File Copy

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
int main(void){
FILE *fp;
char str[80];
if((fp=fopen("TEST", "w"))==NULL){
printf("Cannot open file \n");
exit(0);
}
do{
printf("Enter a string (CR to quit):\n");
gets(str);
strcat(str, "\n");
fputs(str, fp);
}while(*str!='\n');
rewind(fp);
while(!feof(fp)){
fgets(str, 79, fp);
printf(str);
}
return(0);
}

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Erasing a File

remove() function

int remove(const char *filename);

Returns zero if successful, otherwise a non-zero value

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Flushing

int fflush(FILE *fp);

Writes the content of any buffered data to the associated file

If fp is NULL, all opened files are flushed

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fread() and fwrite()
To read and write data types that are longer than 1 byte

size_t fread(void *buffer, size_t num_bytes, size_t count, FILE *fp);

buffer is pointer to a region of memory that will receive the data from
the file
count is number items read with each item being num byte bytes in
length
Returns the number of items read

size_t fwrite(const void *buffer, size_t num_bytes, size_t count, FILE *fp);

buffer is pointer to the information that will be written to the file

Returns the number of items written
Typically used for binary files
Useful for reading and writing user defined data types, i.e. structures
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Example I

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
fwrite(&d, sizeof(double), 1, fp);
struct temp{ fwrite(&i, sizeof(int), 1, fp);
char name[30]; fwrite(&l, sizeof(long), 1, fp);
int age; fwrite(str, sizeof(char), strlen(str), fp);
char sub[10]; fwrite(&t1, sizeof(struct temp), 1, fp);
}; rewind(fp);

int main(void){ fread(&e, sizeof(double), 1, fp);

FILE *fp; fread(&j, sizeof(int), 1, fp);
double d=12.23, e; fread(&m, sizeof(long), 1, fp);
int i=101, j; fread(s, sizeof(char), sizeof(s), fp);
long l=123023, m; fread(&t2, sizeof(struct temp), 1, fp);
char str[10];
char s[10]; printf("%f %d %ld %s\n", e, j, m, s);
struct temp t1={"ABC XYZ", 18, "BCSE"}, t2; printf("%s %d %s\n", t2.name, t2.age, t2.sub);

if((fp=fopen("test", "wb+"))==NULL){ return(0);

printf("Cannot open file \n"); }
exit(0);
}
strcpy(str, "Ravi");

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fseek() and Random Access I/O

int fseek(FILE *fp, long int numbytes, int origin);

Sets the file position indicator numbytes distance away from origin
origin can be one of the following
SEEK SET Beginning of the file
SEEK CUR Current position
SEEK END End of file
Returns zero if successful, a nonzero value otherwise

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ftell()

Determine the current location of the position indicator within a file

long int ftell(FILE *fp);

Returns -1 if failure

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fprintf() and fscanf()

ASCII formatted file I/O

int fprintf(FILE *fp, const char *control_string, ...);

int fscanf(FILE *fp, const char *control_string, ...);

Not always efficient, extra overhead

File content is human readable

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Example I

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
struct temp{
strcpy(str, "Ravi");
char name[30];
fprintf(fp, "%f%d%ld %s ", d, i, l, str);
int age;
fprintf(fp, "%s %d %s", t1.name, t1.age, t1.sub);
char sub[10];
fclose(fp);
};
if((fp=fopen("test", "r"))==NULL){
int main(void){
printf("Cannot open file \n");
FILE *fp;
exit(0);
float d=12.23, e;
}
int i=101, j;
fscanf(fp, "%f%d%ld%s", &e, &j, &m, s);
long l=123023, m;
fscanf(fp, "%[^$]s%c%d%s", t2.name, &c, &t2.age,
char str[10];
t2.sub);
char s[10];
printf("%f %d %ld %s", e, j, m, s);
char c;
printf("%s %d %s\n", t2.name, t2.age, t2.sub);
struct temp t1={"ABC XYZ$", 18, "BCSE"}, t2;
fclose(fp); return(0);
}
if((fp=fopen("test", "w"))==NULL){
printf("Cannot open file \n");
exit(0);
}

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