University of Science, VNU-HCM

Faculty of Information Technology

Introduction to Programming

File

Lecturer: Le Ngoc Thanh

Email: lnthanh@fit.hcmus.edu.vn

HCM City 1
Content

1 File types

2 Input-Output System

3 Manipulation on Raw files

4 Use files to store data

2
 Introduction
• The programming with the file aims to store
the program's data into the secondary
memory and retrieve this data back when
necessary.
• Usually data storage is the file on disk.
• Two main file types are considered:
– Text File
– Binary file

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 Text File
• This is the most simple and common structured
text file, which can be viewed and repaired
using the operating system commands or
simple text editor programs.
• Is normally stored on disk as .txt.
• Most of the program's source code is stored on
disk as a text file.
• Content composed of 8-bit characters
– These characters are found to have code from 0x20
or higher.
– The control characters have a code that is less than
0x20
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 Expanded text file
• Unicode characters or multi-byte characters
can be saved.
• The two most common expanded crude text
structures are:
– Unicode text: Saves UTF-16 characters.
– UTF-8: Saves the character length fluctuations
from 1 to 4 bytes.

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 Binary files
• Are unstructured files such as raw text files.
• Each file consists of a range of data bytes,
including two types:
– Sequential bytes are not mutually relevant in
terms of organizational structure files.
– Is structured according to the convention of the
file creation software.

6
 Steps to working with file
• Includes 3 main steps:
– Step 1. Open the file, the programmer needs to
include the correct path and file name.
– Step 2. Use the file (after successfully opening
the file).
 Read data from the file inserted into the memory
variable in the program.
 Write data from the memory variable in the program
File.
– Step 3. Close the file (after completing the
necessary tasks).

7
Open File function

FILE *fopen(const char *filename, const char *mode)

Open the file named (path) is contained in

the filename with the type open mode (see
table).

Success: structure-style pointers FILE

Fail: NULL (Wrong rule named file, no
drive found, folder not found, open files not
yet available for reading,...)
FILE* fp = fopen(“myFile.txt”, “rt”);
if (fp == NULL)
printf(“Can not open file!”);

8
 Arguments in openning file (mode)

Arguments Meaning
b Open binary file type
t Open the text file (default)
r Open the file only to read data from the file. Returns NULL
if file not found.
w Open the file just to write the data to the file. The file will
be created if it is not already, the previous data is erased.
a Open the file only to add (append) data to the end of the
file. The file will be created if it is not already.
r+ Like the R mode and add the data recording feature and
the file will be created if not already.
w+ Same mode W and additional read feature.
a+ Same mode A and additional reading features.

9
 Reading and writing data (stdio.h)
• Perform reading/writing data in the following
ways:
• Import/Export as Format
– Function: fscanf, fprintf
– Use only with text files.
• Import/export each character or line up file
– Function : getc, fgetc, fgets, putc, fputs
– Should only be used with text styles.
• Read/write data directly from memory-file
– Function : fread, fwrite
– Only used with binary file type.

10
Output with format

int fprintf(FILE *fp, char *fnt, …)

Writes data in string format fnt (similar to

the printf function) into stream fp.
If fp is stdout, the function is the same as
printf.
Success: returns the number of bytes
written.
Fail: return EOF (has value -1, defined in
STDIO.H, for use in text files)
int i = 2912; int c = ‘P’; float f = 17.06;
FILE* fp = fopen(“output.txt”, “wt”);
if (fp != NULL)
fprintf(fp, “%d %c %.2f\n”, i, c, f);

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Input with format

int fscanf(FILE *fp, char *fnt, …)

Read data in string format fnt (similar to the

scanf function) from stream fp.
If fp is stdin, the function is the same as
scanf
Success: Returns the number of readable
elements.
Fail: return EOF.
int i;
FILE* fp = fopen(“input.txt”, “rt”);
if (fp != NULL)
fscanf(fp, “%d”, &i);

12
Read a character

int getc(FILE *fp) và int fgetc(FILE *fp)

Read a character from stream fp.

getc is macro while fgetc is function of
macro getc.
Success: returns the character read from
the file after converting to an unsigned
integer.
Fail: return EOF when finish fp or error.
char ch;
FILE* fp = fopen(“input.txt”, “rt”);
if (fp != NULL)
ch = getc(fp); //  ch = fgetc(fp);

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Read a string

int fgets(char *str, int n, FILE *fp)

Reads a sequence of characters from

stream fp into str, ends when n-1
characters or meets a newline.

Success: return str.

Fail: return NULL when you get an error or
EOF.
char s[20];
FILE* fp = fopen(“input.txt”, “rt”);
if (fp != NULL)
fgets(s, 20, fp);

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Write a character

int putc(int ch, FILE *fp) và int fputc(in ch, FILE *fp)

Write character ch into stream fp.

putc is macro while fputc is function of
macro putc.

Success: return character ch.

Fail: return EOF.

FILE* fp = fopen(“output.txt”, “rt”);

if (fp != NULL)
putc(‘a’, fp); // or fputc(‘a’, fp);

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Write a string

int fputs(const char *str, FILE *fp)

Write a string str into stream fp. If fp is

stdout, fputs is the same as puts, but puts
also write newline.

Success: return the last character written.

Fail: return EOF.

char s[] = “Intro to Programming”;

FILE* fp = fopen(“output.txt”, “wt”);
if (fp != NULL)
fputs(s, fp);

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Write data in byte

int fwrite(void *buf, int size, int count, FILE *fp)

Write count times of data with size bytes

from buffer buf into stream fp.

Success: return the number of records

(not the number of bytes) written.
Fail: return the quantity less than count.
int a[] = {1, 2, 3};
FILE* fp = fopen(“output.dat”, “wb”);
if (fp != NULL)
fwrite(a, sizeof(int), 3, fp);

17
Read data in byte

int fread(void *buf, int size, int count, FILE *fp)

Read count of data with size bytes into

buffer buf from stream fp.

Success: return the number of records

(not the number of bytes) read.
Fail: return the quantity less than count or
error.
int a[5];
FILE* fp = fopen(“input.dat”, “rb”);
if (fp != NULL)
fread(a, sizeof(int), 3, fp);

18
Close file

int fclose(FILE *fp)

Close stream fp.

Data in stream fp will be written before
closing.

Success: return 0.
Fail: return EOF.

FILE* fp = fopen(“file.txt”, “rt”);

…
fclose(fp);

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Close all stream

int fcloseall()

Close all open streams except standard

streams stdin, stdout, stdprn, stderr, stdaux.
Should close each stream instead of closing
all.
Success: return the number of closed
streams.
Fail: return EOF.
FILE* fp1 = fopen(“file1.txt”, “rt”);
FILE* fp2 = fopen(“file2.txt”, “wt”);
…
fcloseall();

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 Position indicator
• Position indicator
– Created automatically when opening the file.
– Determines where the reading / writing takes
place in the file.
• Position
– When the file is not open: the position indicator
will be at the beginning of the file (value 0).
– When the file is open :
 At the end of file when open for inserting (mode a or
a+)
 At the beginning of file (or value 0) when opening
with other modes (w, w+, r, r+).
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 Sequentially vs random access
• Sequentially access
– Data must be read / written from pointer
indicator to position n-1 before reading data at
position n.
– The position indicator is neglected because the
position indicator automatically moves to the
next position after a read / write operation.
• Random access
– Can read / write at any position in the file
without having to read / write all data
beforehand => using the position indicator.
22
Reset the position indicator

void rewind(FILE *fp)

Resets the position indicator to the

beginning (byte 0) of the file fp.

None

FILE* fp = fopen(“file.txt”, “w+”);

fprintf(fp, “0123456789”);
rewind(fp);
fprintf(fp, “*****”);

23
Change the position indicator

int fseek(FILE *fp, long offset, ing origin)

Change the position indicator in the stream fp

with offset positions from the origin position
(SEEK_SET or 0: beginning of file; SEEK_CUR or
1: current position; SEEK_END or 2: end of file)

Success: return 0.
Fail: returns a nonzero value.

FILE* fp = fopen(“file.txt”, “w+”);

fseek(fp, 0L, SEEK_SET); //  rewind(fp);
fseek(fp, 0L, SEEK_END); // end of file
fseek(fp, -2L, SEEK_CUR);// go back 2 positions

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Determines the position of the position indicator

long ftell(FILE *fp)

The function returns the current position of

the position indicator (from the first position
of the file, i.e. 0) of the stream fp.

Success: returns the current position of

the indicator.
Fail: return -1L.
FILE* fp = fopen(“file.txt”, “rb”);
fseek(fp, 0L, SEEK_END);
long size = ftell(fp);
printf(“Size of file is %ld\n”, size);

25
 Read Introduction to Programming Book (Page 323-331)

• Read the file.

• Create file to write data.
• Edit existing file.
• Add, merge files.
• Support operations
– Check if the file is available.
– Check the file for editing or not.
– Delete, rename files.

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The End