UNIT – V

FILE
Why files are needed?

 When a program is terminated, the entire data is lost. Storing in a file will preserve your
data even if the program terminates.

 If you have to enter a large number of data, it will take a lot of time to enter them all.
However, if you have a file containing all the data, you can easily access the contents of
the file using few commands in C.

 You can easily move your data from one computer to another without any changes.

File I/O:-

Sometimes it is necessary to store the data in a manner that can be later retrieved and displayed
either in a part or in whole. This medium is usually a “file” on the disk. File I/O can be handled
by using different functions.

a) Formatted functions:- The file input function fscanf( ) and the file output function fprintf( )
are called formatted file I/O functions.

b)Unformatted functions:- The input functions like getc( ), getw( ), and fread( ) are called
unformatted file input functions and putc( ), putw( ), and fwrite( ) functions are unformatted file
output functions. Each and every function is having its own syntax and meaning.

File streams:- Stream is either reading or writing of data. The streams are designed to allow the
user to access the files efficiently. A stream is a file or physical device like key board, printer,
monitor, etc., The FILE object uses these devices. When a C program is started, the operating
system is responsible for opening three streams: standard input stream (stdin), standard output
stream (stdout), standard error(stderr).Normally the stdin is connected to the keyboard, the
stdout and stderr are connected to the monitor.

Files
File is a collection of bytes that is stored on secondary storage devices like Hard disk.

OR

A file represents a sequence of bytes on the disk where a group of related data is stored. File is
created for permanent storage of data. It is a ready made structure.

Note:

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All files related function are available in stdio.h header file.

Types of Files

When dealing with files, there are two types of files you should know about:

1. Text files

2. Binary files

1. Text files
Text files are the normal .txt files that you can easily create using Notepad or any simple text
editors.
When you open those files, you'll see all the contents within the file as plain text. You can easily
edit or delete the contents.
They take minimum effort to maintain, are easily readable, and provide least security and takes
bigger storage space.
2. Binary files
Binary files are mostly the .bin files in your computer.
Instead of storing data in plain text, they store it in the binary form (0's and 1's).
They can hold higher amount of data, are not readable easily and provides a better security than
text files.

File Operations
In C, you can perform four major operations on the file, either text or binary:
 Naming a file/Creation of new file
 Opening an existing file
 Reading data from file
 Writing data into file
 Closing a file
Steps for processing a file
 Declare a file pointer
 open a file using fopen() function
 Process the file using suitable file functions.
 close the file using fclose() function.

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Declaration of a file
When working with files, you need to declare a pointer of type file. This declaration is needed
for communication between the file and program.
Syntax
FILE *fp;
Opening a file - for creation and edit
The fopen() function is used to create a new file or to open an existing file.
General Syntax :
fp = fopen("fileopen","mode")
For Example:
fopen("E:\\cprogram\\newprogram.txt","w");
fopen("E:\\cprogram\\oldprogram.bin","rb");
Closing a File
The file (both text and binary) should be closed after reading/writing.
Closing a file is performed using library function fclose().
fclose(fptr); //fptr is the file pointer associated with file to be closed.

File Opening Modes

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

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 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

Difference between Append and Write Mode

Write (w) mode and Append (a) mode, while opening a file are almost the same. Both are used to
write in a file. In both the modes, new file is created if it doesn't exists already.
The only difference they have is, when you open a file in the write mode, the file is reset,
resulting in deletion of any data already present in the file. While in append mode this will not
happen. Append mode is used to append or add data to the existing data of file(if any). Hence,
when you open a file in Append(a) mode, the cursor is positioned at the end of the present data in
the file.
Formatted File I/O Functions
Syntax of fprintf is
fprintf (fp, “control string”, list);
Example: fprintf(fp1, “%s %d”, name, age);
Syntax of fscanf is,
fscanf(fp, “control string”, list);
Example: fscanf(fp, “%s %d”, name, & age);

Note:
 fscanf is used to read list of items from a file
 fprintf is used to write a list of items to a file.

Note:
EOF – End of file (when EOF encountered the reading / writing should be terminated)

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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
fclose(fp);//closing file
}

Example 1: Write to a text file using fprintf()

#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
int num;
FILE *fptr;
fptr = fopen("C:\\program.txt","w");
if(fptr == NULL)
{
printf("Error!");
exit(1);
}
printf("Enter num: ");
scanf("%d",&num);
fprintf(fptr,"%d",num);
fclose(fptr);
return 0;
}

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Example 2: Read from a text file using fscanf()
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
int num;
FILE *fptr;
if ((fptr = fopen("C:\\program.txt","r")) == NULL){
printf("Error! opening file");
// Program exits if the file pointer returns NULL.
exit(1);
}
fscanf(fptr,"%d", &num);
printf("Value of n=%d", num);
fclose(fptr);
return 0;
}

Input/Output Operation on files

To perform Input/Output Operation on files we need below functions.

S.No Function Operation Syntax

1 getc() Read a character from a file getc( fp)

2 putc() Write a character in file putc(c, fp)

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 3 fprintf() To write set of data in file fprintf(fp, "control string", list)

4 fscanf() To read set of data from file. fscanf(fp, "control string", list)

5 getw() To read an integer from a file. getw(fp)

6 putw() To write an integer in file. putw(integer, fp)

Unformatted File I/O Functions

fputc() function
The fputc() function is used to write a single character into file.
putc ( ):-Putting a character in to the file. It works with only character data type. One character
at a time can write into a file.
Ex: char ch =‟a‟;
putc (ch, fp);
Example:
#include <stdio.h>
main(){
FILE *fp;
fp = fopen("file1.txt", "w");//opening file
fputc('a',fp);//writing single character into file
fclose(fp);//closing file
}

file1.txt
a

fgetc() function
The fgetc() function returns/read a single character from the file. It gets a character from the
stream. It returns EOF at the end of file.

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getc ( ): getting a character from the file, or reading the file information character by character at
a time, upto the end of the file by using this function.

Ex: char ch;

ch = getc (fp);

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

fputs()

The fputs() function writes a line of characters into file

Example:

#include<stdio.h>

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 #include<conio.h>

void main(){

FILE *fp;

clrscr();

fp=fopen("myfile2.txt","w");

fputs("hello c programming",fp);

fclose(fp);

getch();

myfile2.txt

hello c programming

fgets()

The fgets() function reads a line of characters from file.

Example:

#include<stdio.h>

#include<conio.h>

void main(){

FILE *fp;

char text[300];

clrscr();

fp=fopen("myfile2.txt","r");

printf("%s",fgets(text,200,fp));

fclose(fp);

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 getch();

Output:

hello c programming

The getw and putw functions:

These are integer oriented functions. These are similar to above functions and are used to read
and write integer values. These are useful when we deal with only integer data. The general
format is

putw ( ): putting or writing of an integer value to a file.

putw (integer , fp);

Ex: int x = 5;

putw(x,fp);

getw ( ): getting or reading integer value from a file.

Ex: int x;

x = getw (fp);

File Positioning Functions

fseek()

The fseek() function is used to set the file pointer to the specified offset. It is used to write data
into file at desired location.

syntax:

fseek(FILE * stream, long int offset, int whence)

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The first parameter stream is the pointer to the file. The second parameter is the position of the
record to be found, and the third parameter specifies the location where the offset starts.

Different Whence in fseek

Whence Meaning

SEKK_SET Starts the offset from the beginning of the file.

SEKK_END Starts the offset from the end of the file.

SEKK_CUR Starts the offset from the current location of the cursor in the file.

or

fseek(file pointer, offset, position);

 file pointer is a pointer to the concerned file.

 Offset is a number or variable of type long, it specifies the number of positions (bytes) to
be moved from the location specified. If offset is positive number, then moving forward
or negative meaning move backwards.

 Position is a n integer number and it specifies from which position the file pointer to be
moved. Position can take one of the following three values.

0 beginning of file
1 current position
2 end of file

Eg: fseek (fp, 0L,0); - go to the beginning of the file. (Similar to rewind).
fseek (fp, 0L,1); - Stay at current position (Rarely used)
fseek (fp, 0L,2); -go to the end of the file, past the last character of the file.

Example:

#include <stdio.h>

void main(){

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 FILE *fp;

fp = fopen("myfile.txt","w+");

fputs("This is javatpoint", fp);

fseek( fp, 7, SEEK_SET );

fputs("sonoo jaiswal", fp);

fclose(fp);

myfile.txt

This is sonoo jaiswal

rewind()

This function places the file pointer to the beginning of the file, irrespective of where it is present
right now. It takes file pointer as an argument.

Syntax:

rewind( fp);

Example:

File: file.txt

this is a simple text

Example:

#include<stdio.h>

#include<conio.h>

void main(){

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 FILE *fp;

char c;

clrscr();

fp=fopen("file.txt","r");

while((c=fgetc(fp))!=EOF){

printf("%c",c);

rewind(fp);//moves the file pointer at beginning of the file

while((c=fgetc(fp))!=EOF){

printf("%c",c);

fclose(fp);

getch();

Output:

this is a simple textthis is a simple text

As you can see, rewind() function moves the file pointer at beginning of the file that is why "this
is simple text" is printed 2 times. If you don't call rewind() function, "this is simple text" will be
printed only once.

ftell()

The ftell() function returns the current file position of the specified stream. We can use ftell()
function to get the total size of a file after moving file pointer at the end of file. We can use
SEEK_END constant to move the file pointer at the end of file.

syntax:

n = ftell(fp);

n would give the relative offset(in bytes).

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Example:

#include <stdio.h>

#include <conio.h>

void main (){

FILE *fp;

int length;

clrscr();

fp = fopen("file.txt", "r");

fseek(fp, 0, SEEK_END);

length = ftell(fp);

fclose(fp);

printf("Size of file: %d bytes", length);

getch();

Output:

Size of file: 21 bytes

INBUILT FUNCTIONS FOR FILE HANDLING IN C LANGUAGE:

File
handling functions Description

fopen () function creates a new file or opens

fopen () an existing file.

fclose () fclose () function closes an opened file.

getw () getw () function reads an integer from file.

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putw () putw () functions writes an integer to file.

fgetc () fgetc () function reads a character from file.

fputc () fputc () functions write a character to file.

gets () gets () function reads line from keyboard.

puts () puts () function writes line to o/p screen.

fgets () function reads string from a file, one

fgets () line at a time.

fputs () fputs () function writes string to a file.

feof () feof () function finds end of file.

fgetchar () function reads a character from

fgetchar () keyboard.

fprintf () function writes formatted data to a

fprintf () file.

fscanf () function reads formatted data from a

fscanf () file.

fputchar () function writes a character onto

fputchar () the output screen from keyboard input.

fseek () function moves file pointer position

fseek () to given location.

SEEK_SET moves file pointer position to the

SEEK_SET beginning of the file.

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 SEEK_CUR moves file pointer position to
SEEK_CUR given location.

SEEK_END moves file pointer position to

SEEK_END the end of file.

ftell () function gives current position of file

ftell () pointer.

rewind () function moves file pointer position

rewind () to the beginning of the file.

getc () getc () function reads character from file.

getch () function reads character from

getch () keyboard.

getche () function reads character from

getche () keyboard and echoes to o/p screen.

getchar () function reads character from

getchar () keyboard.

putc () putc () function writes a character to file.

putchar () function writes a character to

putchar () screen.

printf () function writes formatted data to

printf () screen.

sprinf () function writes formatted output to

sprinf () string.

scanf ()
scanf () function reads formatted data from

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 keyboard.

sscanf () function Reads formatted input from

sscanf () a string.

remove () remove () function deletes a file.

fflush () fflush () function flushes a file.

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