CS1061 C Programming

Lecture 18: Sequential File Processing

A. ORiordan, 2004, 2007 updated

The FILE structure

C views each file as a sequence of bytes

Files end with the end-of-file marker (EOF)
Stream created when a file is opened
Opening a file returns a pointer to a FILE structure

The FILE structure

File descriptor

index into operating system array called the open file table

File Control Block (FCB)

found in every array element, system uses it to administer the file

Creating a File
FILE *myPtr;
creates a FILE pointer called myPtr
myPtr = fopen("myFile.dat", openmode);
Function fopen() returns a FILE pointer and takes two arguments file to open
and file open mode.
If open fails, NULL returned.
fclose(FILE pointer)
Function fclose() closes specified file.
Even though its performed automatically when program ends it is good practice
to close files explicitly.

Reading a sequential access file

A sequential access file is written and read from the start to the end of the file
using a file pointer.
Create a FILE pointer, tie it to the file to read
myPtr = fopen("myFile.dat", "r");
Use fscanf() to read from the file.
Like scanf(), except first argument is a FILE pointer, e.g.:
fscanf(myPtr, "%d%s%f", &myInt, myString, &myFloat);

fopen()
Every call to fopen() will typically be followed with a test, like this:
ifp = fopen("input.dat", "r");
if(ifp == NULL){
printf("can't open file\n");
//exit or return
}
or
if((ifp = fopen("input.dat", "r")) == NULL){
printf("can't open file\n");
//exit or return
}

File Modes
Files are open in a certain mode.
MODE USED FOR
FILE CREATED? EXISTING FILE?
"a"
Appending
Yes
Appended to
"a+"
Reading/appending
Yes
Appended to
"r" Read only
No
Yes
"r+"
Reading/writing No
Yes
"w"
Write only
Yes
Destroyed
"w+"
Reading/writing Yes
Destroyed

The number of streams that may be open simultaneously is specified by the macro
FOPEN_MAX (in stdio.h). FOPEN_MAX must be at least eight in ISO C.

fscanf() and fprintf()

fscanf() and fprintf() are file processing equivalents of scanf() and printf().
Prototypes (as in stdio.h):
int fprintf(FILE *stream, const char *format, ...);
int fscanf(FILE *stream, const char *format, ...);
fprintf(stdout, "Hello") is eqivalent to printf(Hello")
fscanf(stdin, %d, &i) is the equivalent of scanf( %d, &i)
The following example outputs a table of exam scores to a file named scores.txt.

fprintf() example
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
int main(){
int i, score[10];
FILE *HiScores;
for(i=0; i<10; i++) score[i] = 100 - i;
if(!(HiScores = fopen("scores.txt", "w"))== NULL){
for(i=0; i<10; i++)
fprintf(HiScores, "Number %d:\t %d\n", i+1, score[i]);
return 0;
}

fscanf() example
#include <stdio.h>
int main(){
int i;
FILE *fp;
fp = fopen("scores.txt", "r");
while(fscanf(fp, "%d", &i) != EOF)
printf("%d\n", i);
return 0;
}

fgetc() and fputc()

fgetc() reads one character from a file.

Takes a FILE pointer as an argument.

fgetc() and getc() are identical, except that getc() is usually implemented as a
macro for efficiency.
fputc() writes one character to a file

Takes a FILE pointer and a character to write as an argument.

Likewise fputc() and putc() are identical.

fgetline()
Read one line from data.txt, copying it to line array (not more than max chars).
Does not place terminating \n in line array. Returns line length, or 0 for empty
line, or EOF for end-of-file.
Now we could read one line from ifp by calling:
#define MAXLINE 100
char line[MAXLINE];
ifp = fopen(data.txt, r);
...
fgetline(ifp, line, MAXLINE);
EOF indicates the end of file. It usually has the value -1. (ISO C standard requires
only that it's a negative integer.)

fgetc() example
int fgetline(FILE *fp, char line[], int max){
int nch = 0, c;
max = max - 1; /* leave room for '\0' */
while((c = fgetc(fp)) != EOF){
if(c == '\n')
break;
if(nch < max){
line[nch] = c;
nch = nch + 1;
}
}
if((c == EOF) && (nch == 0))
return EOF;
line[nch] = '\0';
return nch;
}

Caution
Sequential access file cannot be modified without the risk of destroying other
data.
Fields can vary in size -different representation in files and screen than internal
representation.
1, 34, -890 are all ints, but have different sizes on disk.
Because of these limitations C also has random access file processing features.
See next lecture.