SCHOOL OF ELECTRICL ENGINEERING &
COMPUTER SCIENCE (SEECS)
File Handling
Dr. Arham Muslim
Last Lecture - Recap
• Functions and Pointers
• Passing By Pointer vs Passing Variable By Reference
• Pointers to Functions
• C++ Program Memory Management
• Dynamic Memory Allocation
• Structures and Pointers
File Handling 2
Today’s Agenda
• File Handling in C++
• File Handling Libraries
• Base Libraries
• Working with File Handling Libraries
• Opening a File
• Reading a File
• Creating and Writing to a File
File Handling 3
File Handling in C++
• Data storage and retrieval from computer hard disk during the
execution of applications
• Process:
• Naming a file
• Opening a file
• Writing data into the file
• Reading data from the file
• Closing a file
File Handling 4
File Handling Libraries
• Required Header Files
• The fstream library allows us to work with files
• To use the fstream library, the following header files are required
#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
• There are three classes included in the fstream library
• ifstream: Reads from files
• ofstream: Creates and writes to files
• fstream: Combination of both previous classes: create, read, and write
to files
File Handling 5
Base Libraries
File Handling 6
Opening a File
• The first step is to open a file for reading or writing operation
• We can open a file by:
• Passing the file name in the constructor at the time of object creation
• Using the open method
• Open a file using the constructor
• ifstream (const char* filename, openmode mode = ios::in);
• E.g. ifstream fin ("demo.txt");
• Open a file using the open method
• Calling the default constructor: ifstream fin;
• E.g. fin.open("demo.txt", ios::in);
File Handling 7
Reading a File – Example
Code Output
#include <iostream> #include <iostream>
#include <fstream> #include <fstream>
#include <string>
#include <string> using namespace std;
using namespace std;
int main() {
int main() { string myText;
ifstream MyReadFile("read_demo.txt");
string myText;
ifstream MyReadFile("read_demo.txt"); if (!MyReadFile.is_open()) {
cerr << "Error: Unable to open file." << endl;
return 1;
if (!MyReadFile.is_open()) { }
cout << "Error: Unable to open file." << endl;
return 1; while (getline(MyReadFile, myText))
} cout << myText << endl;
MyReadFile.close();
while (getline(MyReadFile, myText)) return 0;
cout << myText << endl; }
MyReadFile.close();
return 0;
} File Handling 8
Modes
Member Constant Stands For Access
File open for reading: the internal stream buffer supports
ios::in input
input operations.
File open for writing: the internal stream buffer supports
ios::out output
output operations.
ios::binary binary Operations are performed in binary mode rather than text.
ios::ate at end The output position starts at the end of the file.
All output operations happen at the end of the file, appending
ios::app append
to its existing contents.
Any contents that existed in the file before it is open are
ios::trunc truncate
discarded.
ios::nocreate Do not create Does not allow to create new file if it does not exist.
ios::noreplace Do not replace Does not replace old file with new file.
File Handling
Creating and Writing To a File – Example
Code Output to a File
#include <iostream> This is a demo text written to a file.
#include <fstream> A new line!
using namespace std;
int main() {
// Create and open a text file
ofstream MyFile("demo.txt");
// Write to the file
MyFile << "This is a demo text written to a file.";
MyFile << "\nA new line!";
// Close the file
MyFile.close();
}
File Handling 10
Additional Resources
• File Handling through C++ Classes - GeeksforGeeks
• Programming and Problem Solving with C++, 7th Edition
• Chapter 4: Program Input and the Software Design Process
• Section 4.4 File Input and Output
• Section 4.5 Input Failure
File Handling 11
