File Handling in C

Designed by:
Aanchal Vij
 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 a few commands in C.
• You can easily move your data from one computer to another without
any changes.
 Types of Files

When dealing with files, there are two types of files you should know about:
1. Text files
2. Binary files

Text files are the normal .txt files. You can easily create text files using any
simple text editors such as Notepad.
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 the
least security and takes bigger storage space.
Mode Meaning of Mode During Inexistence of file
r Open for reading. If the file does not exist, fopen()
returns NULL.
rb Open for reading in binary mode. If the file does not exist, fopen()
returns NULL.
If the file exists, its contents are
w Open for writing. overwritten.
If the file does not exist, it will be
created.
If the file exists, its contents are
wb Open for writing in binary mode. overwritten.
If the file does not exist, it will be
created.
Open for append. If the file does not exist, it will be
a
Data is added to the end of the file. created.
ab Open for append in binary mode. If the file does not exist, it will be
Data is added to the end of the file. created.
r+ Open for both reading and writing. If the file does not exist, fopen()
returns NULL.
rb+ Open for both reading and writing in If the file does not exist, fopen()
binary mode. returns NULL.
If the file exists, its contents are
w+ Open for both reading and writing. overwritten.
If the file does not exist, it will be
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

 Closing a File

The file (both text and binary) should be closed after reading/writing.
Closing a file is performed using the fclose() function.
fclose(fptr);
Here, fptr is a file pointer associated with the file to be closed.
 Writing Text to file
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.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;
}

This program takes a number from the user and stores in the file program.txt.
After you compile and run this program, you can see a text file program.txt created in C drive of your computer.
When you open the file, you can see the integer you entered.
  Read from a text file
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.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;
}

This program reads the integer present in the program.txt file and prints it onto the screen.
If you successfully created the file from Example 1, running this program will get you the integer you entered.
 Reading and writing to a binary file

To write into a binary file, you need to use the fwrite() function. The
functions take four arguments:

• address of data to be written in the disk

• size of data to be written in the disk
• number of such type of data
• pointer to the file where you want to write.
fwrite(addressData, sizeData, numbersData, pointerToFile);
 Write to a binary file using fwrite()
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
struct threeNum
{
int n1, n2, n3;
};
int main()
{
int n;
struct threeNum num;
FILE *fptr;
if ((fptr = fopen("C:\\program.bin","wb")) == NULL){
printf("Error! opening file");

// Program exits if the file pointer returns NULL.

exit(1);
}

for(n = 1; n < 5; ++n)

{
num.n1 = n;
num.n2 = 5*n;
num.n3 = 5*n + 1;
fwrite(&num, sizeof(struct threeNum), 1, fptr);
}
fclose(fptr);

return 0;
}
In this program, we create a new file program.bin in the C drive.

We declare a structure threeNum with three numbers - n1, n2 and n3, and define it in the main function as num.

Now, inside the for loop, we store the value into the file using fwrite().

The first parameter takes the address of num and the second parameter takes the size of the structure threeNum.

Since we're only inserting one instance of num, the third parameter is 1. And, the last parameter *fptr points to the file
we're storing the data.

Finally, we close the file.

 Reading from a binary file
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

struct threeNum
{
int n1, n2, n3;
};

int main()
{
int n;
struct threeNum num;
FILE *fptr;
if ((fptr = fopen("C:\\program.bin","rb")) == NULL){
printf("Error! opening file");

// Program exits if the file pointer returns NULL.

exit(1);
}

for(n = 1; n < 5; ++n)

{
fread(&num, sizeof(struct threeNum), 1, fptr);
printf("n1: %d\tn2: %d\tn3: %d", num.n1, num.n2, num.n3);
}
fclose(fptr);

return 0;
}
In this program, you read the same file program.bin and loop through the records one by one.

In simple terms, you read one threeNum record of threeNum size from the file pointed by *fptr into the structure num.

You'll get the same records you inserted in previous example.

 File handling functions Description
fopen () fopen () function creates a new file or opens an existing file.
fclose () fclose () function closes an opened file.
getw () getw () function reads an integer from file.
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 () fgets () function reads string from a file, one line at a time.
fputs () fputs () function writes string to a file.
feof () feof () function finds end of file.
fgetchar () fgetchar () function reads a character from keyboard.
fprintf () fprintf () function writes formatted data to a file.
fscanf () fscanf () function reads formatted data from a file.

fputchar () function writes a character onto the output screen from

fputchar () keyboard input.
fseek () fseek () function moves file pointer position to given location.

SEEK_SET SEEK_SET moves file pointer position to the beginning of the file.

SEEK_CUR SEEK_CUR moves file pointer position to given location.

SEEK_END SEEK_END moves file pointer position to the end of file.

ftell () ftell () function gives current position of file pointer.

rewind () function moves file pointer position to the beginning of the

rewind () file.

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

getch () getch () function reads character from keyboard.

getche () function reads character from keyboard and echoes to o/p

getche () screen.
getchar () getchar () function reads character from keyboard.

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

putchar () putchar () function writes a character to screen.

printf () printf () function writes formatted data to screen.

sprinf () sprinf () function writes formatted output to string.

scanf () scanf () function reads formatted data from keyboard.

sscanf () sscanf () function Reads formatted input from a string.

remove () remove () function deletes a file.

fflush () fflush () function flushes a file.

 Practice Questions

• Write a program in C to find the content of the file and number of

lines in a Text File.