Unit 5 – File Handling in C
Concept of files:
File handing in C is the process in which we create, open, read, write, and
close operations on a file. C language provides different functions such as
fopen(), fwrite(), fread(), fseek(), fprintf(), etc. to perform input, output, and
many different C file operations in our program.
Functions for file handling
There are many functions in the C library to open, read, write, search and close
the file. A list of file functions are given below:
No. Function Description
1 fopen() opens new or existing file
2 fprintf() write data into the file
3 fscanf() reads data from the file
4 fputc() writes a character into the file
5 fgetc() reads a character from file
6 fclose() closes the file
7 fseek() sets the file pointer to given position
8 fputw() writes an integer to file
9 fgetw() reads an integer from file
10 ftell() returns current position
11 rewind() sets the file pointer to the beginning of the file
Opening File: fopen()
We must open a file before it can be read, write, or update. The fopen() function
is used to open a file. The syntax of the fopen() is given below.
FILE *fopen( const char * filename, const char * mode );
The fopen() function accepts two parameters:
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o The file name (string). If the file is stored at some specific location, then
we must mention the path at which the file is stored. For example, a file
name can be like "c://some_folder/some_file.ext".
o The mode in which the file is to be opened. It is a string.
We can use one of the following modes in the fopen() function.
Mode Description
r opens a text file in read mode
w opens a text file in write mode
a opens a text file in append mode
r+ opens a text file in read and write mode
w+ opens a text file in read and write mode
a+ opens a text file in read and write mode
rb opens a binary file in read mode
wb opens a binary file in write mode
ab opens a binary file in append mode
rb+ opens a binary file in read and write mode
wb+ opens a binary file in read and write mode
ab+ opens a binary file in read and write mode
The fopen function works in the following way.
o Firstly, It searches the file to be opened.
o Then, it loads the file from the disk and place it into the buffer. The
buffer is used to provide efficiency for the read operations.
o It sets up a character pointer which points to the first character of the
file.
Consider the following example which opens a file in write mode.
#include<stdio.h>
void main( )
{
FILE *fp ;
char ch ;
fp = fopen("file_handle.c","r") ;
while ( 1 )
{
ch = fgetc ( fp ) ;
if ( ch == EOF )
break ;
printf("%c",ch) ;
}
fclose (fp ) ;
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}
Output
The content of the file will be printed.
#include;
void main( )
{
FILE *fp; // file pointer
char ch;
fp = fopen("file_handle.c","r");
while ( 1 )
{
ch = fgetc ( fp ); //Each character of the file is read and stored in the character
file.
if ( ch == EOF )
break;
printf("%c",ch);
}
fclose (fp );
}
Closing File: fclose()
The fclose() function is used to close a file. The file must be closed after
performing all the operations on it. The syntax of fclose() function is given
below:
int fclose( FILE *fp );
Writing File : fprintf() function
The fprintf() function is used to write set of characters into file. It sends
formatted output to a stream.
Syntax:
int fprintf(FILE *stream, const char *format [, argument, ...])
Example:
#include <stdio.h>
main(){
FILE *fp;
fp = fopen("file.txt", "w");//opening file
fprintf(fp, "Hello file by fprintf...\n");//writing data into file
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fclose(fp);//closing file
}
Reading File : fscanf() function
The fscanf() function is used to read set of characters from file. It reads a word
from the file and returns EOF at the end of file.
Syntax:
int fscanf(FILE *stream, const char *format [, argument, ...])
Example:
#include <stdio.h>
main(){
FILE *fp;
char buff[255];//creating char array to store data of file
fp = fopen("file.txt", "r");
while(fscanf(fp, "%s", buff)!=EOF){
printf("%s ", buff );
}
fclose(fp);
}
Output:
Hello file by fprintf...
C fputc() and fgetc()
Writing File : fputc() function
The fputc() function is used to write a single character into file. It outputs a
character to a stream.
Syntax:
int fputc(int c, FILE *stream)
Example:
#include <stdio.h>
main(){
FILE *fp;
fp = fopen("file1.txt", "w");//opening file
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fputc('a',fp);//writing single character into file
fclose(fp);//closing file
}
file1.txt
Reading File : fgetc() function
The fgetc() function returns a single character from the file. It gets a character
from the stream. It returns EOF at the end of file.
Syntax:
int fgetc(FILE *stream)
Example:
#include<stdio.h>
#include<conio.h>
void main(){
FILE *fp;
char c;
clrscr();
fp=fopen("myfile.txt","r");
while((c=fgetc(fp))!=EOF){
printf("%c",c);
}
fclose(fp);
getch();
}
myfile.txt
this is simple text message
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