MCS-201

Programming in C
Indira Gandhi National Open University
School of Computer and Information
Sciences (SOCIS)
and Python

Functions,structures,pointers,
and file handling in C 2
 MCS-201

Block

2
FUNCTIONS, STRUCTURES, POINTERS AND FILE
HANDLING IN C
UNIT 5
FUNCTIONS 117
UNIT 6
STRUCTURES AND UNIONS 139
UNIT 7
POINTERS 155
UNIT 8
FILE HANDLING 177
BLOCK 2 INTRODUCTION

In Block-1, we had discussed the basic constructs in C programming language,

decision and loop control structures, Arrays and Strings. In this Block-2 we will
discuss Functions, Structures, Pointers and File Handling in C.

Any C program must have a main() function to contain the code executed by default
when the program is run. You can put as many user defined functions as you like in
the program to achieve the modularity in the programming. In C, all functions in a
program are “visible” to all other functions in that. Detail discussion regarding the
types of functions and their invoking is provided in Unit-5.

In C programming, a structure is a convenient way of grouping several pieces of

related information together just like a record. It is a collection of variables under a
single name. These variables can be of different types, and each has a name which is
used to select it from the structure. It can use other structures, arrays or pointers as
some of its members, though this can get complicated unless you are careful. The
concept of Structures is explained in Unit 6.

Unit - 7 introduces you to pointers which is a central part of C programming. A

pointer is a variable that holds the address of another variable; a pointer is said to
“point to” the variable whose address it holds. The special features of pointer
arithmetic make it easy to access array elements using pointers. Array subscript
notation is in fact a special form of pointer notation.

Pointers and arrays have a special relationship which is discussed in this unit.

In any programming language, storage of data in variables, arrays or dynamic data

structures is temporary. When the program terminates, all data is lost. Files are used
for the retention of large amounts of data. Detail discussion regarding the file
streams, types of files and their accessing mechanisms is provided in Unit-8.

The block contains a wide variety of programming examples to support the concepts
given in the material. Whenever possible, examples contain complete programs or
functions rather than incomplete program fragments. To get the maximum benefit
from this, it is necessary that you should understand and execute all the example
programs given in this block, as well, complete the assignment problems given in
the lab manual also.

This block consists of 4 units and is organized as follows:

Unit - 5 provides the overview of the Functions in C.

Unit - 6 provides an overview of the user defined data-type called as the Structures.

Unit - 7 introduces you the concept of Pointers.

Unit - 8 provides the overview of the File Handling in C.

Happy Programming!
 Indira Gandhi
National Open University MCS-201
School of Computer and
Information Sciences PROGRAMMING IN
C AND PYTHON

Block

2
FUNCTIONS, STRUCTURES, POINTERS AND
FILE HANDLING IN C
UNIT 5
Functions

UNIT 6
Structures and Unions

UNIT 7
Pointers

UNIT 8
File Handling
Programme / Course Design Committee
Prof. Sanjeev K. Aggarwal, IIT, Kanpur
Prof. V.V. Subrahmanyam
Prof. M. Balakrishnan, IIT , Delhi Director
SOCIS, IGNOU, New Delhi
Prof Harish Karnick, IIT, Kanpur Prof P. Venkata Suresh
SOCIS, IGNOU, New Delhi
Prof. C. Pandurangan, IIT, Madras
Dr. Shashi Bhushan
Dr. Om Vikas, Sr. Director, MIT Associate Professor
SOCIS, IGNOU, New Delhi
Prof P. S. Grover, Sr. Consultant, Shri Akshay Kumar
Prof. (Retd.) S.K. Gupta Associate Professor
IIT, Delhi SOCIS, IGNOU, New Delhi

Prof. T.V. Vijay Kumar Shri M. P. Mishra

Dean, Associate Professor
School of Computer & System Sciences, SOCIS, IGNOU, New Delhi
JNU, New Delhi Dr. Sudhansh Sharma
Prof. Ela Kumar, Asst. Professor
Dean, Computer Science & Engg SOCIS, IGNOU, New Delhi
IGDTUW, Delhi
Prof. Gayatri Dhingra
GVMITM, Sonipat, Haryana
Mr. Milind Mahajani
Vice President
Impressico Business Solutions
Noida UP

Block Preparation Team

Prof P. S. Grover (Content Editor) Ms. Usha
(Sr Consultant) Dept. of Computer Science
New Era Institute of IT & Professional
Ms. Sumita Kulshreshtha Studies
Dept. of Computer Science New Delhi
Hansraj College
University of Delhi Prof. V.V. Subrahmanyam
SOCIS, IGNOU
Mr. Madana Mohan Babu
Deputy Manager Shri S.S. Rana
NSIC-TSC, New Delhi New Delhi Language
Editors
Ms. Priti Sehgal Prof Sunaina Kumar
Dept. of Computer Science SOH, IGNOU
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University of Delhi

Course Coordinator : Dr. Sudhansh Sharma

(Units 5 to 8 are adapted from MCS-011 Problem Solving and Programming)

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Indira Gandhi National Open University, 2021
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 Functions
UNIT 5 FUNCTIONS

Structure

5.0 Introduction
5.1 Objectives
5.2 Definition of a Function
5.3 Declaration of a Function
5.4 Function Prototypes
5.5 The Return Statement
5.6 Types of Variables and Storage Classes
5.6.1 Automatic Variables
5.6.2 External Variables
5.6.3 Static Variables
5.6.4 Register Variables
5.7 Types of Function Invoking
5.8 Call by Value
5.9 Recursion
5.10 Summary
5.11 Solutions / Answers
5.12 Further Readings

5.0 INTRODUCTION
To make programming simple and easy to debug, we break a larger program
into smaller subprograms which perform ‘well defined tasks’. These
subprograms are called functions. So far we have defined a single function
main().
After reading this unit you will be able to define many other functions and the
main() function can call up these functions from several different places within
the program, to carry out the required processing.

Functions are very important tools for Modular Programming, where we

break large programs into small subprograms or modules (functions in case of
C). The use of functions reduces complexity and makes programming simple
and easy to understand.

In this unit, we will discuss how functions are defined and how are they
accessed from the main program? We will also discuss various types of
functions and how to invoke them. And finally you will learn an interesting
and important programming technique known as Recursion, in which a
function calls within itself.

5.1 OBJECTIVES
After going through this unit, you will learn:
 the need of functions in the programming; 117
Functions, Structures,  how to define and declare functions in ‘C’ Language;
Pointers and
File Handling in C  different types of functions and their purpose;
 how the functions are called from other functions;
 how data is transferred through parameter passing, to functions and the
Return statement;
 recursive functions; and
 the concept of ‘Call by Value’ and its drawbacks.

5.2 DEFINTION OF A FUNCTION

A function is a self- contained block of executable code that can be called
from any other function .In many programs, a set of statements are to be
executed repeatedly at various places in the program and may with different
sets of data, the idea of functions comes in mind. You keep those repeating
statements in a function and call them as and when required. When a function
is called, the control transfers to the called function, which will be executed,
and then transfers the control back to the calling function (to the statement
following the function call). Let us see an example as shown below:
Example 5.1

/* Program to illustrate a function*/

#include <stdio.h>
main ()
{
void sample();
printf(“\n You are in main”);
}

void sample()
{
printf(“\n You are in sample”);
}

OUTPUT
You are in sample
You are in main

Here we are calling a function sample() through main() i.e. control of

execution transfers from main() to sample() , which means main() is
suspended for some time and sample() is executed. After its execution the
control returns back to main(), at the statement following function call and the
execution of main() is resumed.

The syntax of a function is:

return data type function_name(list of arguments)
{
datatype declaration of the arguments;
118
 Functions
executable statements;
return(expression);
}

where,
 return data type is the same as the data type of the variable that is returned
by the function using return statement.
 a function_name is formed in the same way as variable names / identifiers
are formed.
 the list of arguments or parameters are valid variable names as shown
below, separated by commas: (data type1 var1,data type2 var2,…….. data
type n var n)
 for example (int x, float y, char z).
 arguments give the values which are passed from the calling function.
 the body of function contains executable statements.
 the return statement returns a single value to the calling function.
Example 5.2

Let us write a simple function that calculates the square of an integer.

/*Program to calculate the square of a given integer*/

/* square() function */
{
int square(int no) /*passing of argument */
int result ; /* local variable to function square */
result = no*no;
return(result); /* returns an integer value */
}

/*It will be called from main()as follows */

main()
{
int n ,sq; /* local variable to function main */
printf (“Enter a number to calculate square value”);
scanf(“%d”,&n);
sq=square(n); /* function call with parameter passing */
printf (”\nSquare of the number is : %d”, sq);
} /* program ends */

OUTPUT

Enter a number to calculate square value : 5

Square of the number is : 25

5.3 DECLARATION OF A FUNCTION

As we have mentioned in the previous section, every function has its
declaration and function definition. When we talk of declaration only, it means
119
Functions, Structures, only the function name, its argument list and return type are specified and the
Pointers and function body or definition is not attached to it. The syntax of a function
File Handling in C
declaration is:

return data type function_name(list of arguments);

For example,

int square(int no);

float temperature(float c, float f);

We will discuss the use of function declaration in the next section.

5.4 FUNCTION PROTOTYPES

In Example 5.1 for calculating square of a given number, we have declared
function square() before main() function; this means before coming to main(),
the compiler knows about square(), as the compilation process starts with the
first statement of any program. Now suppose, we reverse the sequence of
functions in this program i.e., writing the main() function and later on writing
the square() function, what happens ? The “C” compiler will give an error.
Here the introduction of concept of “function prototypes” solves the above
problem.
Function Prototypes require that every function which is to be accessed should
be declared in the calling function. The function declaration, that will be
discussed earlier, will be included for every function in its calling function .
Example 5.2 may be modified using the function prototype as follows:
Example 5.3
/*Program to calculate the square of a given integer using the function
prototype*/
#include <stdio.h>
main ()
{
int n , sq ;
int square(int) ; /* function prototype */
printf (“Enter a number to calculate square value”);
scanf(“%d”,&n);
sq = square(n); /* function call with parameter passing */
printf (“\nSsquare of the number is : %d”, sq);
}

/* square function */
int square(int no) /*passing of argument */
{
int result ; /* local variable to function square */
result = no*no;
return(result); /* returns an integer value */
}

120
 Functions
OUTPUT

Enter a number to calculate square value : 5

Square of the number is: 25

Points to remember:
 Function prototype requires that the function declaration must include the
return type of function as well as the type and number of arguments or
parameters passed.
 The variable names of arguments need not be declared in prototype.
 The major reason to use this concept is that they enable the compiler to
check if there is any mismatch between function declaration and function
call.
Check Your Progress 1

1) Write a function to multiply two integers and display the product.

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2) Modify the above program, by introducing function prototype in the main

function.

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5.5 THE return STATEMENT

If a function has to return a value to the calling function, it is done through the
return statement. It may be possible that a function does not return any value;
only the control is transferred to the calling function. The syntax for the return
statement is:

return (expression);
We have seen in the square() function, the return statement, which returns an
integer value.
Points to remember:

121
Functions, Structures,  You can pass any number of arguments to a function but can return only
Pointers and
File Handling in C one value at a time.
For example, the following are the valid return statements
a) return (5);
b) return (x*y);
For example, the following are the invalid return statements
c) return (2, 3);
d) return (x, y);
 If a function does not return anything, void specifier is used in the function
declaration.
For example:
void square (int no)
{
int sq;
sq = no*no;
printf (“square is %d”, sq);
}

 All the function’s return type is by default is “int”, i.e. a function returns
an integer value, if no type specifier is used in the function declaration.

Some examples are:

(i) square (int no); /* will return an integer value */

(ii) int square (int no); /* will return an integer value */
(iii) void square (int no); /* will not return anything */

 What happens if a function has to return some value other than integer?
The answer is very simple: use the particular type specifier in the function
declaration.
For example consider the code fragments of function definitions below:
1) Code Fragment - 1

char func_char( …….. )

{
char c;
…………….
…………….
……………
}

2) Code Fragment - 2
float func_float (……..)
{
float f;
…………..
…………..
…………..
122
 return(f); Functions
}

Thus from the above examples, we see that you can return all the data types
from a function, the only condition being that the value returned using return
statement and the type specifier used in function declaration should match.
 A function can have many return statements. This thing happens when
some condition based returns are required.
For example,

/*Function to find greater of two numbers*/

int greater (int x, int y)
{
if (x>y)
return (x);
else
return (y);
}

 And finally, with the execution of return statement, the control is

transferred to the calling function with the value associated with it.
In the above example if we take x = 5 and y = 3, then the control will be
transferred to the calling function when the first return statement will be
encountered, as the condition (x > y) will be satisfied. All the remaining
executable statements in the function will not be executed after this
returning.
Check Your Progress 2

1. Which of the following are valid return statements?

a) return (a);
b) return (z,13);
c) return (22.44);
d) return;
e) return (x*x, y*y);
…………………………………………………………………………….
…………………………………………………………………………….
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…………………………………………………………………………….
…………………………………………………………………………….
…………………………………………………………………………….
…………………………………………………………………………….
123
Functions, Structures,
Pointers and 5.6 TYPES OF VARIABLES AND STORAGE
File Handling in C CLASSES
In a program consisting of a number of functions a number of different types
of variables can be found.
Global vs. Static variables: Global variables are recognized through out the
program whereas local valuables are recognized
only within the function where they are defined.
Static vs. Dynamic variables: Retention of value by a local variable means,
that in static, retention of the variable value is lost
once the function is completely executed whereas in
certain conditions the value of the variable has to be
retained from the earlier execution and the
execution retained.
The variables can be characterized by their data type and by their storage class.
One way to classify a variable is according to its data type and the other can be
through its storage class. Data type refers to the type of value represented by a
variable whereas storage class refers to the permanence of a variable and its
scope within the program i.e. portion of the program over which variable is
recognized.
Storage Classes
There are four different storage classes specified in C:
1. Auto (matic) 2. Extern (al)
3. Static 4. Register

The storage class associated with a variable can sometimes be established by

the location of the variable declaration within the program or by prefixing
keywords to variables declarations.

For example: auto int a, b;

static int a, b;
extern float f;

5.6.1 Automatic Variables

The variables local to a function are automatic i.e., declared within the
function. The scope of lies within the function itself. The automatic defined in
different functions, even if they have same name, are treated as different. It is
the default storage class for variables declared in a function.

Points to remember:

 The auto is optional therefore there is no need to write it.

 All the formal arguments also have the auto storage class.
 The initialization of the auto-variables can be done:
 in declarations
124
 Functions
 using assignment expression in a function
 If not initialized the unpredictable value is defined.
 The value is not retained after exit from the program.
Let us study these variables by a sample program given below:
Example 5.4
/* To print the value of automatic variables */

# include <stdio.h>
main ( int argc, char * argv[ ])
{
int a, b;
double d;
printf(“%d”, argc);
a = 10;
b = 5;
d = (b * b) – (a/2);
printf(“%d, %d, %f”, a, b, d);
}

All the variables a, b, d, argc and argv [ ] have automatic storage class.

5.6.2 External (Global) Variables

These are not confined to a single function. Their scope ranges from the point
of declaration to the entire remaining program. Therefore, their scope may be
the entire program or two or more functions depending upon where they are
declared.
Points to remember:

 These are global and can be accessed by any function within its scope.
Therefore value may be assigned in one and can be written in another.
 There is difference in external variable definition and declaration.
 External Definition is the same as any variable declaration:
 Usually lies outside or before the function accessing it.
 It allocates storage space required.
 Initial values can be assigned.
 The external specifier is not required in external variable definition.
 A declaration is required if the external variable definition comes after the
function definition.
 A declaration begins with an external specifier.
 Only when external variable is defined is the storage space allocated.
 External variables can be assigned initial values as a part of variable
definitions, but the values must be constants rather than expressions.
 If initial value is not included then it is automatically assigned a value of
zero.
125
Functions, Structures, Let us study these variables by a sample program given below:
Pointers and
File Handling in C Example 5.5
/* Program to illustrate the use of global variables*/
# include <stdio.h>
int gv; /*global variable*/
main ( )
{
void function1(); /*function declaration*/
gv = 10;
printf (“%d is the value of gv before function call\n”, gv);
function1();
printf (“%d is the value of gv after function call\n”, gv);
}

void function1 ( )
{
gv = 15: }

OUTPUT

10 is the value of gv before function call

15 is the value of gv after function call

5.6.3 Static Variables

In case of single file programs static variables are defined within functions and
individually have the same scope as automatic variables. But static variables
retain their values throughout the execution of program within their previous
values.
Points to remember:

 The specifier precedes the declaration. Static and the value cannot be
accessed outside of their defining function.
 The static variables may have same name as that of external variables but
the local variables take precedence in the function. Therefore external
variables maintain their independence with locally defined auto and static
variables.
 Initial value is expressed as the constant and not expression.
 Zeros are assigned to all variables whose declarations do not include
explicit initial values. Hence they always have assigned values.
 Initialization is done only is the first execution.
Let us study this sample program to print value of a static variable:
Example 5.6
/* Program to illustrate the use of static variable*/

#include <stdio.h>

main()
{
int call_static();
126
int i,j; Functions
i=j=0;
j = call_static();
printf(“%d\n”,j);
j = call_static ();
printf(“%d\n”,j);
j = call_static();
printf(“%d\n”,j);
}

int call_static()
{
static int i=1;
int j;
j = i;
i++;
return(j);
}

OUTPUT
1
2
3

This is because i is a static variable and retains its previous value in next
execution of function call_static(). To remind you j is having auto storage
class. Both functions main and call_static have the same local variable i and j
but their values never get mixed.

5.6.4 Register Variables

Besides three storage class specifications namely, Automatic, External and
Static, there is a register storage class. Registers are special storage areas
within a computer’s CPU. All the arithmetic and logical operations are carried
out with these registers.
For the same program, the execution time can be reduced if certain values can
be stored in registers rather than memory. These programs are smaller in size
(as few instructions are required) and few data transfers are required. The
reduction is there in machine code and not in source code. They are declared
by the proceeding declaration by register reserved word as follows:

register int m;
Points to remember:
 These variables are stored in registers of computers. If the registers are
not available they are put in memory.
 Usually 2 or 3 register variables are there in the program.
 Scope is same as automatic variable, local to a function in which they are
declared.
 Address operator ‘&’ cannot be applied to a register variable.
127
Functions, Structures,  If the register is not available the variable is though to be like the
Pointers and
File Handling in C automatic variable.
 Usually associated integer variable but with other types it is allowed
having same size (short or unsigned).
 Can be formal arguments in functions.
 Pointers to register variables are not allowed.
 These variables can be used for loop indices also to increase efficiency.

5.7 TYPES OF FUNCTION INVOKING

We categorize a function’s invoking (calling) depending on arguments or
parameters and their returning a value. In simple words we can divide a
function’s invoking into four types depending on whether parameters are
passed to a function or not and whether a function returns some value or not.
The various types of invoking functions are:
 With no arguments and with no return value.
 With no arguments and with return value
 With arguments and with no return value
 With arguments and with return value.
Let us discuss each category with some examples:
TYPE 1: With no arguments and have no return value
As the name suggests, any function which has no arguments and does not
return any values to the calling function, falls in this category. These type of
functions are confined to themselves i.e. neither do they receive any data from
the calling function nor do they transfer any data to the calling function. So
there is no data communication between the calling and the called function are
only program control will be transferred.

Example 5.7

/* Program for illustration of the function with no arguments and no return value*/

/* Function with no arguments and no return value*/

#include <stdio.h>
main()
{
void message();
printf(“Control is in main\n”);
message(); /* Type 1 Function */
printf(“Control is again in main\n”);
}

void message()
{
printf(“Control is in message function\n”);
} /* does not return anything */

128
OUTPUT Functions

Control is in main
Control is in message function
Control is again in main

TYPE 2: With no arguments and with return value

Suppose if a function does not receive any data from calling function but does
send some value to the calling function, then it falls in this category.

Example 5.8
Write a program to find the sum of the first ten natural numbers.

/* Program to find sum of first ten natural numbers */

#include <stdio.h>

int cal_sum()
{
int i, s=0;
for (i=0; i<=10; i++)
s=s + i;
return(s); /* function returning sum of first ten natural numbers */
}

main()
{
int sum;
sum = cal_sum();
printf(“Sum of first ten natural numbers is % d\n”, sum);
}

OUTPUT

Sum of first ten natural numbers is 55

TYPE 3: With Arguments and have no return value

If a function includes arguments but does not return anything, it falls in this
category. One way communication takes place between the calling and the called
function.

Before proceeding further, first we discuss the type of arguments or parameters here.
There are two types of arguments:

 Actual arguments
 Formal arguments

Let us take an example to make this concept clear:

Example 5.9
Write a program to calculate sum of any three given numbers.

#include <stdio.h>

main()
129
Functions, Structures, {
Pointers and int a1, a2, a3;
File Handling in C void sum(int, int, int);
printf(“Enter three numbers: “);
scanf (“%d%d%d”,&a1,&a2,&a3);
sum (a1,a2,a3); /* Type 3 function */
}

/* function to calculate sum of three numbers */

void sum (int f1, int f2, int f3)
{
int s;
s = f1+ f2+ f3;
printf (“\nThe sum of the three numbers is %d\n”,s);
}

OUTPUT

Enter three numbers: 23 34 45

The sum of the three numbers is 102

Here f1, f2, f3 are formal arguments and a1, a2, a3 are actual arguments.
Thus we see in the function declaration, the arguments are formal arguments, but
when values are passed to the function during function call, they are actual arguments.

Note: The actual and formal arguments should match in type, order and number

TYPE 4: With arguments function and with return value

In this category two-way communication takes place between the calling and called
function i.e. a function returns a value and also arguments are passed to it. We modify
above Example according to this category.

Example 5.10
Write a program to calculate sum of three numbers.

/*Program to calculate the sum of three numbers*/

#include <stdio.h>
main()
{
int a1, a2, a3, result;
int sum(int, int, int);
printf(“Please enter any 3 numbers:\n”);
scanf (“%d %d %d”, & a1, &a2, &a3);
result = sum (a1,a2,a3); /* function call */
printf (“Sum of the given numbers is : %d\n”, result);
}

/* Function to calculate the sum of three numbers */

int sum (int f1, int f2, int f3)
{
return(f1+ f2 + f3); /* function returns a value */
}

OUTPUT
130
Please enter any 3 numbers: Functions
345
Sum of the given numbers is: 12

5.8 CALL BY VALUE

So far we have seen many functions and also passed arguments to them, but if
we observe carefully, we will see that we have always created new variables
for arguments in the function and then passed the values of actual arguments to
them. Such function calls are called “call by value”.
Let us illustrate the above concept in more detail by taking a simple function of
multiplying two numbers:
Example 5.11
Write a program to multiply the two given numbers

#include <stdio.h>
main()
{
int x, y, z;
int mul(int, int);
printf (“Enter two numbers: \n”);
scanf (“%d %d”,&x,&y);
z= mul(x, y); /* function call by value */
printf (“\n The product of the two numbers is : %d”, z);
}

/* Function to multiply two numbers */

int mul(int a, int b)
{
int c;
c =a*b;
return(c); }

OUTPUT

Enter two numbers:

23 2
The product of two numbers is: 46

Now let us see what happens to the actual and formal arguments in memory.
main() function mul() function

131
Functions, Structures,
Pointers and
x
File Handling in C a
2 2
The variables are local
to the mul() function
which are created in
memory with the
3y 3 b function call and are
destroyed with the
return to the called
6 6 function
z c

Variables local to main() function Variables local to mul() function

What are meant by local variables? The answer is local variables are those which can
be used only by that function.

Advantages of Call by value:

The only advantage is that this mechanism is simple and it reduces confusion
and complexity.

Disadvantages of Call by value:

As you have seen in the above example, there is separate memory allocation for
each of the variable, so unnecessary utilization of memory takes place.

The second disadvantage, which is very important from programming point of

view, is that any changes made in the arguments are not reflected to the calling
function, as these arguments are local to the called function and are destroyed
with function return.

Let us discuss the second disadvantage more clearly using one example:
Example 5.12
Write a program to swap two values.

/*Program to swap two values*/

#include <stdio.h>
main()
{
int x = 2, y = 3;
void swap(int, int);

printf (“\n Values before swapping are %d %d”, x, y);

swap (x, y);
printf (“\n Values after swapping are %d %d”, x, y);
}

/* Function to swap(interchange) two values */

void swap( int a, int b )
{
132
int t; Functions
t = a;
a = b;
b = t;
}

OUTPUT

Values before swap are 2 3

Values after swap are 2 3

But the output should have been 3 2. So what happened?

x a a
2 2 3
t 2
y b b t

3 3 2

Values passing from main() to swap() function Variables in swap() function

Here we observe that the changes which takes place in argument variables are not
reflected in the main() function; as these variables namely a, b and t will be destroyed
with function return.

 All these disadvantages will be removed by using “call by reference”, which will
be discussed with the introduction of pointers in UNIT 11.

Check Your Progress 3

1. Write a function to print Fibonacci series upto ‘n’ terms 1,1,2,3,…..n

……………………………………………………………………………………

……………………………………………………………………………………

……………………………………………………………………………………

……………………………………………………………………………………

……………………………………………………………………………………

……………………………………………………………………………………

2. Write a function power (a, b) to calculate ab

……………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………

……………………………………………………………………………………

……………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………

……………………………………………………………………………………

133
Functions, Structures,
Pointers and 5.9 RECURSION
File Handling in C
Within a function body, if the function calls itself, the mechanism is known as
‘Recursion’ and the function is known as ‘Recursive function’. Now let us
study this mechanism in detail and understand how it works.

 As we see in this mechanism, a chaining of function calls occurs, so it is

necessary for a recursive function to stop somewhere or it will result into
infinite callings. So the most important thing to remember in this
mechanism is that every “recursive function” should have a terminating
condition.
 Let us take a very simple example of calculating factorial of a number,
which we all know is computed using this formula 5! = 5*4*3*2*1
 First we will write non – recursive or iterative function for this.

Example 5.13
Write a program to find factorial of a number

#include <stdio.h>
main ()
{
int n, factorial;
int fact(int);
printf (“Enter any number:\n” );
scanf ("%d", &n);
factorial = fact ( n); /* function call */
printf (“Factorial is %d\n”, factorial);
}

/* Non recursive function of factorial */

int fact (int n)

{
int res = 1, i;
for (i = n; i >= 1; i--)
res = res * i;
return (res);
}

OUTPUT

Enter any number: 5

Factorial is 120

How it works?

Suppose we call this function with n = 5

Iterations:
1. i= 5 res = 1*5 = 5
2. i= 4 res = 5*4 = 20
3. i= 3 res = 20*4 = 60
4. i= 2 res = 60*2 = 120
134
5. i= 1 res = 120*1 = 120 Functions

Now let us write this function recursively. Before writing any function
recursively, we first have to examine the problem, that it can be implemented
through recursion.

For instance, we know n! = n* (n  1)! (Mathematical formula)

Or fact (n) = n*fact (n-1)

Or fact (5) = 5*fact (4)

That means this function calls itself but with value of argument decreased by ‘1’.

Example 5.14
Modify the program 8 using recursion.

/*Program to find factorial using recursion*/

#include<stdio.h>
main()
{
int n, factorial;
int fact(int);
printf("Enter any number: \n" );
scanf("%d",&n);
factorial = fact(n); /*Function call */
printf ("Factorial is %d\n", factorial); }

/* Recursive function of factorial */

int fact(int n)
{
int res;
if(n == 1) /* Terminating condition */
return(1);
else
res = n*fact(n-1); /* Recursive call */
return(res); }

OUTPUT
Enter any number: 5
Factorial is 120

How it works?

Suppose we will call this function with n = 5

fact (5) 120

5*fact(4) 5*24
Returning Process

4*fact(3) 4*6(=24)

3*fact(2) 3*2*1(= 6)

2*fact(1) 2* 1(=2)
135
Functions, Structures,
Pointers and
File Handling in C 2*1 (It terminates here)

Thus a recursive function first proceeds towards the innermost condition,

which is the termination condition, and then returns with the value to the
outermost call and produces result with the values from the previous return.
Note: This mechanism applies only to those problems, which repeats itself.
These types of problems can be implemented either through loops or recursive
functions, which one is better understood to you.
Check Your Progress 4

1. Write recursive functions for calculating power of a number ‘a’ raised by

another number ‘b’ i.e. ab

………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………

5.10 SUMMARY
In this unit, we learnt about “Functions”: definition, declaration, prototypes,
types, function calls datatypes and storage classes, types function invoking and
lastly Recursion. All these subtopics must have given you a clear idea of how
to create and call functions from other functions, how to send values through
arguments, and how to return values to the called function. We have seen that
the functions, which do not return any value, must be declared as “void”,
return type. A function can return only one value at a time, although it can
have many return statements. A function can return any of the data type
specified in ‘C’.

Any variable declared in functions are local to it and are created with function
call and destroyed with function return. The actual and formal arguments
should match in type, order and number. A recursive function should have a
terminating condition i.e. function should return a value instead of a repetitive
function call.

5.11 SOLUTIONS / ANSWERS

Check Your Progress 1
1. /* Function to multiply two integers */
int mul( int a, int b)
{
int c;
c = a*b;
136 return( c );
 } Functions

2. #include <stdio.h>
main()
{
int x, y, z;
int mul(int, int); /* function prototype */
printf(“Enter two numbers”);
scanf(“%d %d”, &x, &y);
z = mul(x, y); /* function call */
printf(“result is %d”, z); }

Check Your Progress 2

1. (a) Valid
(b) In valid
(c) Valid
(d) Valid
(e) Invalid

Check Your Progress 3

1. /* Function to print Fibonacci Series */

void fib(int n)
{
int curr_term, int count = 0;
int first = 1;
int second = 1;
print(“%d %d”, curr_term);
count = 2;
while(count < = n)
{ curr_term = first + second;
printf(“%d”, curr_term);
first = second;
second = curr_term;
count++;
}
}

2. /* Non Recursive Power function i.e. pow(a, b) */

int pow( int a, int b)

{
int i, p = 1;
for(i = 1; i < = b; i++)
p = p*a;
return(p);
}

Check Your Progress 4

1. /* Recursive Power Function */

int pow( int a, int b )

{ if( b = = 0 )
return(1);
else
return(a* pow(a, b-1 )); /* Recursive call */
137
Functions, Structures, }
Pointers and
File Handling in C /* Main Function */
main()
{
int a, b, p;
printf(“ Enter two numbers”);
scanf( “%d %d”, &a, &b );
p = pow(a, b); /* Function call */
printf( “ The result is %d”, p);
}

5.12 FURTHER READINGS

1. The C programming language, Brain W. Kernighan, Dennis M. Ritchie,
PHI
2. C,The Complete Reference, Fourth Edition, Herbert Schildt, Tata
McGraw Hill, 2002.
3. Computer Programming in C, Raja Raman. V, 2002, PHI.
5. C,The Complete Reference, Fourth Edition, Herbert Schildt, TMGH,2002.

138
 Structures and
UNIT 6 STRUCTURES AND UNIONS Unions

Structure

6.0 Introduction
6.1 Objectives
6.2 Declaration of Structures
6.3 Accessing the Members of a Structure
6.4 Initializing Structure Variables
6.5 Structures as Function Arguments
6.6 Structures and Arrays
6.7 Unions
6.8 Initializing an Union
6.9 Accessing the Members of an Union
6.10 Summary
6.11 Solutions / Answers
6.12 Further Readings

6.0 INTRODUCTION
We have seen so far how to store numbers, characters, strings, and even large sets of
these primitives using arrays, but what if we want to store collections of different
kinds of data that are somehow related. For example, a file about an employee will
probably have his/her name, age, the hours of work, salary, etc. Physically, all of that
is usually stored in someone’s filing cabinet. In programming, if you have lots of
related information, you group it together in an organized fashion. Let’s say you have
a group of employees, and you want to make a database! It just wouldn’t do to have
tons of loose variables hanging all over the place. Then we need to have a single data
entity where we will be able to store all the related information together. But this can’t
be achieved by using the arrays alone, as in the case of arrays, we can group multiple
data elements that are of the same data type, and is stored in consecutive memory
locations, and is individually accessed by a subscript. That is where the user-defined
datatype Structures come in.
Structure is commonly referred to as a user-defined data type. C’s structures allow
you to store multiple variables of any type in one place (the structure). A structure can
contain any of C’s data types, including arrays and other structures. Each variable
within a structure is called a member of the structure. They can hold any number of
variables, and you can make arrays of structures. This flexibility makes structures
ideally useful for creating databases in C. Similar to the structure there is another user
defined data type called Union which allows the programmer to view a single storage
in more than one way i.e., a variable declared as union can store within its storage
space, the data of different types, at different times. In this unit, we will be discussing
the user-defined data type structures and unions.

6.1 OBJECTIVES
After going through this unit you should be able to:

 declare and initialize the members of the structures;

 access the members of the structures;
 pass the structures as function arguments;
 declare the array of structures;
 declare and define union; and
 perform all operations on the variables of type Union.
139
Functions, Structures,
Pointers and
6.2 DECLARATION OF STRUCTURES
File Handling in C
To declare a structure you must start with the keyword struct followed by the
structure name or structure tag and within the braces the list of the structure’s
member variables. Note that the structure declaration does not actually create any
variables. The syntax for the structure declaration is as follows:

struct structure-tag {
datatype variable1;
datatype variable2;
dataype variable 3;
...
};

For example, consider the student database in which each student has a roll number,
name and course and the marks obtained. Hence to group this data with a structure-tag
as student, we can have the declaration of structure as:

struct student {
int roll_no;
char name[20];
char course[20];
int marks_obtained;
};

The point you need to remember is that, till this time no memory is allocated to the
structure. This is only the definition of structure that tells us that there exists a user-
defined data type by the name of student which is composed of the following
members. Using this structure type, we have to create the structure variables:

struct student stud1, stud2 ;

At this point, we have created two instances or structure variables of the user-defined
data type student. Now memory will be allocated. The amount of memory allocated
will be the sum of all the data members which form part of the structure template.

The second method is as follows:

struct {
int roll_no;
char name[20];
char course[20];
int marks_obtained;
} stud1,stud2;

In this case, a tag name student is missing, but still it happens to be a valid declaration
of structure. In this case the two variables are allocated memory equivalent to the
members of the structure.

The advantage of having a tag name is that we can declare any number of variables of
the tagged named structure later in the program as per requirement.

If you have a small structure that you just want to define in the program, you can do
the definition and declaration together as shown below. This will define a structure of
type struct telephone and declare three instances of it.

140
Consider the example for declaring and defining a structure for the telephone billing Structures and
Unions
with three instances:

struct telephone{
int tele_no;
int cust_code;
char cust_address[40];
int bill_amt;
}tele1, tele2, tele3;

The structure can also be declared by using the typedefinition or typedef. This can be
done as shown below:

typedef struct country{

char name[20];
int population;
char language[10];
}Country;

This defines a structure which can be referred to either as struct country or Country,
whichever you prefer. Strictly speaking, you don’t need a tag name both before and
after the braces if you are not going to use one or the other. But it is a standard
practice to put them both in and to give them the same name, but the one after the
braces starts with an uppercase letter.

The typedef statement doesn’t occupy storage: it simply defines a new type. Variables
that are declared with the typedef above will be of type struct country, just like
population is of type integer. The structure variables can be now defined as below:

Country Mexico, Canada, Brazil;

6.3 ACCESSING THE MEMBERS OF A

STRUCTURE
Individual structure members can be used like other variables of the same type.
Structure members are accessed using the structure member operator (.), also called
the dot operator, between the structure name and the member name. The syntax for
accessing the member of the structure is:

structurevariable. member-name;

Let us take the example of the coordinate structure.

struct coordinate{
int x;
int y;
};
Thus, to have the structure named first refer to a screen location that has coordinates
x=50, y=100, you could write as,
first.x = 50;
first.y = 100;

To display the screen locations stored in the structure second, you could write,

printf("%d,%d", second.x, second.y);

141
Functions, Structures, The individual members of the structure behave like ordinary date elements and can
Pointers and be accessed accordingly.
File Handling in C
Now let us see the following program to clarify our concepts. For example, let us see,
how will we go about storing and retrieving values of the individual data members of
the student structure.

Example 6.1

/*Program to store and retrieve the values from the student structure*/

#include<stdio.h>
struct student {
int roll_no;
char name[20];
char course[20];
int marks_obtained ;
};
main()
{
student s1 ;
printf(“Enter the student roll number:”);
scanf(“%d”,&s1.roll_no);
printf(“\nEnter the student name: “);
scanf(“%s”,s1.name);
printf(“\nEnter the student course”);
scanf(“%s”,s1.course);
printf(“Enter the student percentage\n”);
scanf(“%d”,&s1.marks_obtained);
printf(“\nData entry is complete”);
printf( “\nThe data entered is as follows:\n”);
printf(“\nThe student roll no is %d”,s1.roll_no);
printf(“\nThe student name is %s”,s1.name);
printf(“\nThe student course is %s”,s1.course);
printf(“\nThe student percentage is %d”,s1.marks_obtained);
}

OUTPUT

Enter the student roll number: 1234

Enter the student name: ARUN
Enter the student course: MCA
Enter the student percentage: 84
Date entry is complete

The data entered is as follows:

The student roll no is 1234
The student name is ARUN
The student course is MCA
The student percentage is 84

Another way of accessing the storing the values in the members of a structure is by
initializing them to some values at the time when we create an instance of the data
type.

142
 Structures and
6.4 INITIALIZING STRUCTURE VARIABLES Unions

Like other C variable types, structures can be initialized when they’re declared. This
procedure is similar to that for initializing arrays. The structure declaration is followed
by an equal sign and a list of initialization values is separated by commas and
enclosed in braces. For example, look at the following statements for initializing the
values of the members of the mysale structure variable.

Example 6.2

struct sale {
char customer[20];
char item[20];
float amt;
} mysale = { "XYZ Industries",
“toolskit",
600.00
};

In a structure that contains structures as members, list the initialization values in order.
They are placed in the structure members in the order in which the members are listed
in the structure definition. Here’s an example that expands on the previous one:

Example 6.3

struct customer {
char firm[20];
char contact[25];
}

struct sale {
struct customer buyer1;
char item [20];
float amt;
} mysale = {
{ "XYZ Industries", "Tyran Adams"},
"toolskit",
600.00
};

These statements perform the following initializations:

 the structure member mysale.buyer1.firm is initialized to the string “XYZ
Industries”.
 the structure member mysale.buyer1.contact is initialized to the string “Tyran
Adams”.
 the structure member mysale.item is initialized to the string "toolskit".
 the structure member mysale.amount is initialized to the amount 600.00.

For example let us consider the following program where the data members are
initialized to some value.

Example 6.4

Write a program to access the values of the structure initialized with some initial
values.

143
Functions, Structures, /* Program to illustrate to access the values of the structure initialized with some
Pointers and initial values*/
File Handling in C
#include<stdio.h>
struct telephone{
int tele_no;
int cust_code;
char cust_name[20];
char cust_address[40];
int bill_amt;
};
main()
{
struct telephone tele = {2314345,
5463,
"Ram",
"New Delhi",
2435 };

printf("The values are initialized in this program.");

printf("\nThe telephone number is %d",tele.tele_no);
printf("\nThe customer code is %d",tele.cust_code);
printf("\nThe customer name is %s",tele.cust_name);
printf("\nThe customer address is %s",tele.cust_address);
printf("\nThe bill amount is %d",tele.bill_amt);
}

OUTPUT

The values are initialized in this program.

The telephone number is 2314345
The customer code is 5463
The customer name is Ram
The customer Address is New Delhi
The bill amount is 2435

Check Your Progress 1

1. What is the difference between the following two declarations?

struct x1{……….};
typedef struct{………}x2;

…………………………………………………………………………………….

…………………………………………………………………………………….

…………………………………………………………………………………….

…………………………………………………………………………………….

…………………………………………………………………………………….

2. Why can’t you compare structures?

…………………………………………………………………………………….

…………………………………………………………………………………….

…………………………………………………………………………………….
144
 Structures and
3. Why does size of report a larger size than, one expects, for a structure type, as if Unions

there were padding at the end?

…………………………………………………………………………………….

…………………………………………………………………………………….

…………………………………………………………………………………….
…………………………………………………………………………………….

…………………………………………………………………………………….

4. Declare a structure and instance together to display the date.

…………………………………………………………………………………..

…………………………………………………………………………………..

…………………………………………………………………………………..
…………………………………………………………………………………..

…………………………………………………………………………………..

6.5 STRUCTURES AS FUNCTION ARGUMENTS

C is a structured programming language and the basic concept in it is the modularity
of the programs. This concept is supported by the functions in C language. Let us look
into the techniques of passing the structures to the functions. This can be achieved in
primarily two ways: Firstly, to pass them as simple parameter values by passing the
structure name and secondly, through pointers. We will be concentrating on the first
method in this unit and passing using pointers will be taken up in the next unit. Like
other data types, a structure can be passed as an argument to a function. The program
listing given below shows how to do this. It uses a function to display data on the
screen.

Example 6.5

Write a program to demonstrate passing a structure to a function.

/*Program to demonstrate passing a structure to a function.*/

#include <stdio.h>

/*Declare and define a structure to hold the data.*/

struct data{
float amt;
char fname [30];
char lname [30];
} per;

main()
{
void print_per(struct data x);
printf(“Enter the donor’s first and last names separated by a space:”);
scanf(“%s %s”, per.fname, per.lname);
printf(“\nEnter the amount donated in rupees:”); 145
Functions, Structures, scanf(“%f”, &per.amt);
Pointers and print_per(per);
File Handling in C return 0;
}

void print_per(struct data x)

{
printf("\n %s %s gave donation of amount Rs.%.2f.\n", x.fname, x.lname, x.amt);
}

OUTPUT

Enter the donor’s first and last names separated by a space: RAVI KANT
Enter the amount donated in rupees: 1000.00
RAVI KANT gave donation of the amount Rs. 1000.00.

You can also pass a structure to a function by passing the structure’s address(that is, a
pointer to the structure which we will be discussing in the next unit). In fact, in the
older versions of C, this was the only way to pass a structure as an argument. It is not
necessary now, but you might see the older programs that still use this method. If you
pass a pointer to a structure as an argument, remember that you must use the indirect
membership operator () to access structure members in the function.

Please note the following points with respect to passing the structure as a parameter to
a function.
 The return value of the called function must be declared as the value that is being
returned from the function. If the function is returning the entire structure then the
return value should be declared as struct with appropriate tag name.
 The actual and formal parameters for the structure data type must be the same as
the struct type.
 The return statement is required only when the function is returning some data.
 When the return values of type is struct, then it must be assigned to the structure
of identical type in the calling function.

Let us consider another example as shown in the Example 6.6, where structure salary
has three fields related to an employee, namely - name, no_days_worked and
daily_wage. To accept the values from the user we first call the function get_data that
gets the values of the members of the structure. Then using the wages function we
calculate the salary of the person and display it to the user.

Example 6.6

Write a program to accept the data from the user and calculate the salary of the person
using concept of functions.

/* Program to accept the data from the user and calculate the salary of the person*/

#include<stdio.h>
main()
{
struct sal {
char name[30];
int no_days_worked;
int daily_wage; };
struct sal salary;
struct sal get_dat(struct); /* function prototype*/
float wages(struct); /*function prototype*/
float amount_payable; /* variable declaration*/
146
 salary = get_data(salary); Structures and
Unions
printf(“The name of employee is %s”,salary.name);
printf(“Number of days worked is %d”,salary.no_daya_worked);
printf(“The daily wage of the employees is %d”,salary.daily_wage);
amount_payable = wages(salary);
printf(“The amount payable to %s is %f”,salary.name,amount_payable);
}

struct sal get_data(struct sal income)

{
printf(“Please enter the employee name:\n”);
scanf(“%s”,income.name);
printf(“Please enter the number of days worked:\n”);
scanf(“%d”,&income.no_days_worked);
printf(‘Please enter the employee daily wages:\n”);
scanf(“%d”,&income.daily_wages);
return(income);
}

float wages(struct)
{
struct sal amt;
int total_salary ;
total_salary = amt.no_days_worked * amt.daily_wages;
return(total_salary); }

Check Your Progress 2

1. How is structure passing and returning implemented?

…………………………………………………………………………………..
…………………………………………………………………………………..

…………………………………………………………………………………..

…………………………………………………………………………………..

…………………………………………………………………………………..

2. How can I pass constant values to functions which accept structure arguments?

…………………………………………………………………………………..

…………………………………………………………………………………..

…………………………………………………………………………………..

…………………………………………………………………………………..

…………………………………………………………………………………..
3. What will be the output of the program?

#include<stdio.h>
main()
{
struct pqr{
int x ;
};
struct pqr pqr ; 147
Functions, Structures, pqr.x =10 ;
Pointers and printf(“%d”, pqr.x);
File Handling in C }

…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………

6.6 STRUCTURES AND ARRAYS

Thus far we have studied as to how the data of heterogeneous nature can be grouped
together and be referenced as a single unit of structure. Now we come to the next step
in our real world problem. Let’s consider the example of students and their marks. In
this case, to avoid declaring various data variables, we grouped together all the data
concerning the student’s marks as one unit and call it student. The problem that arises
now is that the data related to students is not going to be of a single student only. We
will be required to store data for a number of students. To solve this situation one way
is to declare a structure and then create sufficient number of variables of that structure
type. But it gets very cumbersome to manage such a large number of data variables, so
a better option is to declare an array.

So, revising the array for a few moments we would refresh the fact that an array is
simply a collection of homogeneous data types. Hence, if we make a declaration as:

int temp[20];

It simply means that temp is an array of twenty elements where each element is of
type integer, indicating homogenous data type. Now in the same manner, to extend the
concept a bit further to the structure variables, we would say,

struct student stud[20] ;

It means that stud is an array of twenty elements where each element is of the type
struct student (which is a user-defined data type we had defined earlier). The various
members of the stud array can be accessed in the similar manner as that of any other
ordinary array.

For example,
struct student stud[20], we can access the roll_no of this array as

stud[0].roll_no;
stud[1].roll_no;
stud[2].roll_no;
stud[3].roll_no;
…
…
…
stud[19].roll_no;

Please remember the fact that for an array of twenty elements the subscripts of the
array will be ranging from 0 to 19 (a total of twenty elements). So let us now start by
seeing how we will write a simple program using array of structures.

Example 6.7

Write a program to read and display data for 20 students.

148
 Structures and
Unions
/*Program to read and print the data for 20 students*/

#include <stdio.h>
struct student { int roll_no;
char name[20];
char course[20];
int marks_obtained ;
};
main()
{
struct student stud [20];
int i;
printf(“Enter the student data one by one\n”);
for(i=0; i<=19; i++)
{
printf(“Enter the roll number of %d student”,i+1);
scanf(“%d”,&stud[i].roll_no);
printf(“Enter the name of %d student”,i+1);
scanf(“%s”,stud[i].name);
printf(“Enter the course of %d student”,i+1);
scanf(“%d”,stud[i].course);
printf(“Enter the marks obtained of %d student”,i+1);
scanf(“%d”,&stud[i].marks_obtained);
}
printf(“the data entered is as follows\n”);
for(i=0;i<=19;i++)
{
printf(“The roll number of %d student is %d\n”,i+1,stud[i].roll_no);
printf(“The name of %d student is %s\n”,i+1,stud[i].name);
printf(“The course of %d student is %s\n”,i+1,stud[i].course);
printf(“The marks of %d student is %d\n”,i+1,stud[i].marks_obtained);
}
}

The above program explains to us clearly that the array of structure behaves as any
other normal array of any data type. Just by making use of the subscript we can access
all the elements of the structure individually.

Extending the above concept where we can have arrays as the members of the
structure. For example, let’s see the above example where we have taken a structure
for the student record. Hence in this case it is a real world requirement that each
student will be having marks of more than one subject. Hence one way to declare the
structure, if we consider that each student has 3 subjects, will be as follows:

struct student {
int roll_no;
char name[20];
char course[20];
int subject1 ;
int subject2;
int subject3;
};

The above described method is rather a bit cumbersome, so to make it more efficient
we can have an array inside the structure, that is, we have an array as the member of
the structure.
struct student {
149
Functions, Structures, int roll_no;
Pointers and char name[20];
File Handling in C char course[20];
int subject[3] ;
};

Hence to access the various elements of this array we can the program logic as
follows:

Example 6.8

/*Program to read and print data related to five students having marks of three
subjects each using the concept of arrays */

#include<stdio.h>
struct student {
int roll_no;
char name[20];
char course[20];
int subject[3] ;
};
main()
{
struct student stud[5];
int i,j;
printf(“Enter the data for all the students:\n”);
for(i=0;i<=4;i++)
{
printf(“Enter the roll number of %d student”,i+1);
scanf(“%d”,&stud[i].roll_no);
printf(“Enter the name of %d student”,i+1);
scanf(“%s”,stud[i].name);
printf(“Enter the course of %d student”,i+1);
scanf(“%s”,stud[i].course);
for(j=0;j<=2;j++)
{
printf(“Enter the marks of the %d subject of the student %d:\n”,j+1,i+1);
scanf(“%d”,&stud[i].subject[j]);
}
}
printf(“The data you have entered is as follows:\n”);
for(i=0;i<=4;i++)
{
printf(“The %d th student's roll number is %d\n”,i+1,stud[i].roll_no);
printf(“The %d the student's name is %s\n”,i+1,stud[i].name);
printf(“The %d the student's course is %s\n”,i+1,stud[i].course);
for(j=0;j<=2;j++)
{
printf(“The %d the student's marks of %d I subject are %d\n”,i+1, j+1,
stud[i].subject[j]);
}
}
printf(“End of the program\n”);
}

Hence as described in the example above, the array as well as the arrays of structures
can be used with efficiency to resolve the major hurdles faced in the real world
programming environment.
150
 Structures and
6.7 UNIONS Unions

Structures are a way of grouping homogeneous data together. But it often happens that
at any time we require only one of the member’s data. For example, in case of the
support price of shares you require only the latest quotations. And only the ones that
have changed need to be stored. So if we declare a structure for all the scripts, it will
only lead to crowding of the memory space. Hence it is beneficial if we allocate space
to only one of the members. This is achieved with the concepts of the UNIONS.
UNIONS are similar to STRUCTURES in all respects but differ in the concept of
storage space.

A UNION is declared and used in the same way as the structures. Yet another
difference is that only one of its members can be used at any given time. Since all
members of a Union occupy the same memory and storage space, the space allocated
is equal to the largest data member of the Union. Hence, the member which has been
updated last is available at any given time.

For example a union can be declared using the syntax shown below:

union union-tag {
datatype variable1;
datatype variable2;
...
};

For example,

union temp{
int x;
char y;
float z;
};

In this case a float is the member which requires the largest space to store its value
hence the space required for float(4 bytes) is allocated to the union. All members
share the same space. Let us see how to access the members of the union.

Example 6.9

Write a program to illustrate the concept of union.

/* Declare a union template called tag */

union tag {
int nbr;
char character;
}
/* Use the union template */
union tag mixed_variable;
/* Declare a union and instance together */
union generic_type_tag {
char c;
int i;
float f;
double d;
} generic;

151
Functions, Structures,
Pointers and
6.8 INITIALIZING AN UNION
File Handling in C
Let us see, how to initialize a Union with the help of the following example:

Example 6.10
union date_tag {
char complete_date [9];
struct part_date_tag {
char month[2];
char break_value1;
char day[2];
char break_value2;
char year[2];
} parrt_date;
}date = {“01/01/05”};

6.9 ACCESSING THE MEMBERS OF AN UNION

Individual union members can be used in the same way as the structure members, by
using the member operator or dot operator(.). However, there is an important
difference in accessing the union members. Only one union member should be
accessed at a time. Because a union stores its members on top of each other, it’s
important to access only one member at a time. Trying to access the previously stored
values will result in erroneous output.

Check Your Progress 3

1. What will be the output?

#include<stdio.h>
main()
{
union{
struct{
char x;
char y;
char z;
char w;
}xyz;

struct{
int p;
int q ;
}pq;
long a ;
float b;
double d;
}prq;
printf (“%d”,sizeof(prq));
}

152
 Structures and
6.10 SUMMARY Unions

In this unit, we have learnt how to use structures, a data type that you design to meet
the needs of a program. A structure can contain any of C’s data types, including other
structures, pointers, and arrays. Each data item within a structure, called a member, is
accessed using the structure member operator (.) between the structure name and the
member name. Structures can be used individually, and can also be used in arrays.

Unions were presented as being similar to structures. The main difference between a
union and a structure is that the union stores all its members in the same area. This
means that only one member of a union can be used at a time.

6.11 SOLUTIONS / ANSWERS

Check Your Progress 1
1. The first form declares a structure tag; the second declares a typedef. The main
difference is that the second declaration is of a slightly more abstract type - users
do not necessarily know that it is a structure, and the keyword struct is not used
while declaring an instance.

2. There is no single correct way for a compiler to implement a structure comparison

consistent with C’s low-level flavor. A simple byte-by-byte comparison could
detect the random bits present in the unused “holes” in the structure (such padding
is used to keep the alignment of later fields correct). A field-by-field comparison
for a large structure might require an inordinate repetitive code.

3. Structures may have this padding (as well as internal padding), to ensure that
alignment properties will be preserved when an array of contiguous structures is
allocated. Even when the structure is not part of an array, the end padding remains,
so that sizeof can always return a consistent size.

4. struct date {
char month[2];
char day[2];
char year[4];
} current_date;

Check Your Progress 2

1. When structures are passed as arguments to functions, the entire structure is

typically pushed on the stack, using as many words. (Programmers often choose
to use pointers instead, to avoid this overhead). Some compilers merely pass a
pointer to the structure, though they may have to make a local copy to preserve
pass-by value semantics.

Structures are often returned from functions in a pointed location by an extra,

compiler-supplied “hidden” argument to the function. Some older compilers used
a special, static location for structure returns, although this made structure -
valued functions non-reentrant, which ANSI C disallows.

2. C has no way of generating anonymous structure values. You will have to use a
temporary structure variable or a little structure - building function.

3. 10
Check Your Progress 3
1. 8 153
Functions, Structures,
Pointers and
6.12 FURTHER READINGS
File Handling in C

1. The C Programming Language, Kernighan & Richie, PHI Publication, 2002.

2. Computer Science A structured programming approach using C,
Behrouza .Forouzan, Richard F. Gilberg, Second Edition, Brooks/Cole, Thomson
Learning, 2001.
3. Programming with C, Schaum Outlines, Second Edition, Gottfried, Tata McGraw
Hill, 2003.

154
 Pointers
UNIT 7 POINTERS

Structure

7.0 Introduction
7.1 Objectives
7.2 Pointers and their Characteristics
7.3 Address and Indirection Operators
7.4 Pointer Type Declaration and Assignment
7.4.1 Pointer to a Pointer
7.4.2 Null Pointer Assignment
7.5 Pointer Arithmetic
7.6 Passing Pointers to Functions
7.6.1 A Function Returning More than One Value
7.6.2 Function Returning a Pointer
7.7 Arrays and Pointers
7.8 Array of Pointers
7.9 Pointers and Strings
7.10 Summary
7.11 Solutions / Answers
7.12 Further Readings

7.0 INTRODUCTION

If you want to be proficient in the writing of code in the C programming language,

you must have a thorough working knowledge of how to use pointers. One of those
things, beginners in C find difficult is the concept of pointers. The purpose of this
unit is to provide an introduction to pointers and their efficient use in the C
programming. Actually, the main difficulty lies with the C’s pointer terminology than
the actual concept.

C uses pointers in three main ways. First, they are used to create dynamic data
structures: data structures built up from blocks of memory allocated from the heap at
run-time. Second, C uses pointers to handle variable parameters passed to functions.
And third, pointers in C provide an alternative means of accessing information stored
in arrays, which is especially valuable when you work with strings.

A normal variable is a location in memory that can hold a value. For example, when
you declare a variable i as an integer, four bytes of memory is set aside for it. In your
program, you refer to that location in memory by the name i. At the machine level,
that location has a memory address, at which the four bytes can hold one integer value.
A pointer is a variable that points to another variable. This means that it holds the
memory address of another variable. Put another way, the pointer does not hold a
value in the traditional sense; instead, it holds the address of another variable. It points
to that other variable by holding its address.

Because a pointer holds an address rather than a value, it has two parts. The pointer
itself holds the address. That addresses points to a value. There is the pointer and the
value pointed to. As long as you’re careful to ensure that the pointers in your
programs always point to valid memory locations, pointers can be useful, powerful,
and relatively trouble-free tools. 155
Functions, Structures,
Pointers and We will start this unit with a basic introduction to pointers and the concepts
File Handling in C surrounding pointers, and then move on to the three techniques described above.
Thorough knowledge of the pointers is very much essential for your future courses
like the data structures etc..

7.1 OBJECTIVES

After going through this unit you should be able to:

 understand the concept and use pointers;

 address and use of indirection operators;
 make pointer type declaration, assignment and initialization;
 use null pointer assignment;
 use the pointer arithmetic;
 handle pointers to functions;
 see the underlying unit of arrays and pointers; and
 understand the concept of dynamic memory allocation.

7.2 POINTERS AND THEIR CHARACTERISTICS

Computer’s memory is made up of a sequential collection of storage cells called

bytes. Each byte has a number called an address associated with it. When we declare
a variable in our program, the compiler immediately assigns a specific block of
memory to hold the value of that variable. Since every cell has a unique address, this
block of memory will have a unique starting address. The size of this block depends
on the range over which the variable is allowed to vary. For example, on 32 bit PC’s
the size of an integer variable is 4 bytes. On older 16 bit PC’s integers were 2 bytes.
In C the size of a variable type such as an integer need not be the same on all types of
machines. If you want to know the size of the various data types on your system,
running the following code given in the Example 7.1 will give you the information.

Example 7.1

Write a program to know the size of the various data types on your system.

# include <stdio.h>
main()
{
printf(“n Size of a int = %d bytes”, sizeof(int));
printf(“\n Size of a float = %d bytes”, sizeof(float));
printf(“\n Size of a char = %d bytes”, sizeof(char));
}

OUTPUT

Size of int = 2 bytes

Size of float = 4 bytes
Size of char = 1 byte

An ordinary variable is a location in memory that can hold a value. For example,
when you declare a variable num as an integer, the compiler sets aside 2 bytes of
memory (depends up the PC) to hold the value of the integer. In your program, you
refer to that location in memory by the name num. At the machine level that location
has a memory address.

156
int num = 100; Pointers

We can access the value 100 either by the name num or by its memory address. Since
addresses are simply digits, they can be stored in any other variable. Such variables
that hold addresses of other variables are called Pointers. In other words, a pointer is
simply a variable that contains an address, which is a location of another variable in
memory. A pointer variable “points to” another variable by holding its address.
Since a pointer holds an address rather than a value, it has two parts. The pointer
itself holds the address. That addresses points to a value. There is a pointer and the
value pointed to. This fact can be a little confusing until you get comfortable with it,
but once you get familiar with it, then it is extremely easy and very powerful. One
good way to visualize this concept is to examine the figure 7.1 given below:

num
2 bytes – integer variable

ch
1 byte – character variable
temp

4 bytes – float variable

ptr1
2 bytes – int pointer variable

ptr2
2 bytes – char pointer variable

Figure 7.1: Concept of pointer variables

Let us see the important features of the pointers as follows:

Characteristic features of Pointers:

With the use of pointers in programming,

i. The program execution time will be faster as the data is manipulated with the
help of addresses directly.
ii. Will save the memory space.
iii. The memory access will be very efficient.
iv. Dynamic memory is allocated.

7.3 THE ADDRESS AND INDIRECTION OPERATORS

Now we will consider how to determine the address of a variable. The operator that is
available in C for this purpose is “&” (address of ) operator. The operator & and the
immediately preceding variable returns the address of the variable associated with it.
C’s other unary pointer operator is the “*”, also called as value at address or
indirection operator. It returns a value stored at that address. Let us look into the
illustrative example given below to understand how they are useful.

157
Functions, Structures,
Example 7.2
Pointers and
File Handling in C Write a program to print the address associated with a variable and value
stored at that address.

/* Program to print the address associated with a variable and value stored at that
address*/

# include <stdio.h>
main()
{
int qty = 5;
printf("Address of qty = %u\n",&qty);
printf("Value of qty = %d \n",qty);
printf("Value of qty = %d",*(&qty));
}

OUTPUT

Address of qty = 65524

Value of qty = 5
Value of qty = 5

Look at the printf statement carefully. The format specifier %u is taken to increase
the range of values the address can possibly cover. The system-generated address of
the variable is not fixed, as this can be different the next time you execute the same
program. Remember unary operator operates on single operands. When & is
preceded by the variable qty, has returned its address. Note that the & operator can
be used only with simple variables or array elements. It cannot be applied to
expressions, constants, or register variables.

Observe the third line of the above program. *(&qty) returns the value stored at
address 65524 i.e. 5 in this case. Therefore, qty and *(&qty) will both evaluate to 5.

7.4 POINTER TYPE DECLARATION AND

ASSIGNMENT

We have seen in the previous section that &qty returns the address of qty and this
address can be stored in a variable as shown below:

ptr = &qty;

In C, every variable must be declared for its data type before it is used. Even this
holds good for the pointers too. We know that ptr is not an ordinary variable like any
integer variable. We declare the data type of the pointer variable as that of the type of
the data that will be stored at the address to which it is pointing to. Since ptr is a
variable, which contains the address of an integer variable qty, it can be declared as:

int *ptr;

where ptr is called a pointer variable. In C, we define a pointer variable by preceding

its name with an asterisk(*). The “*” informs the compiler that we want a pointer
variable, i.e. to set aside the bytes that are required to store the address in memory.
The int says that we intend to use our pointer variable to store the address of an
integer. Consider the following memory map:

158
 ptr qty Variable Pointers

65524 100 Value

65522 65524 Address

Let us look into an example given below:

Example 7.3

/* Program below demonstrates the relationships we have discussed so far */

# include <stdio.h>
main()
{
int qty = 5;
int *ptr; /* declares ptr as a pointer variable that points to an integer variable
*/
ptr = &qty; /* assigning qty’s address to ptr -> Pointer Assignment */

printf("Address of qty = %u \n", &qty);

printf("Address of qty = %u \n", ptr);
printf("Address of ptr = %u \n", &ptr);
printf("Value of ptr = %d \n", ptr);
printf("Value of qty = %d \n", qty);
printf("Value of qty = %d \n", *(&qty));
printf("Value of qty = %d", *ptr);
}

OUTPUT

Address of qty = 65524

Address of ptr = 65522
Value of ptr = 65524
Value of qty = 5
Value of qty = 5
Value of qty = 5

Try this as well:

Example 7.4

/* Program that tries to reference the value of a pointer even though the pointer is
uninitialized */

# include <stdio.h>
main()
{
int *p; /* a pointer to an integer */
*p = 10;
printf(“the value is %d”, *p);
printf(“the value is %u”,p);
}

This gives you an error. The pointer p is uninitialized and points to a random location
in memory when you declare it. It could be pointing into the system stack, or the
global variables, or into the program’s code space, or into the operating system.
159
Functions, Structures,
When you say *p=10; the program will simply try to write a 10 to whatever random
Pointers and location p points to. The program may explode immediately. It may subtly corrupt
File Handling in C data in another part of your program and you may never realize it. Almost always, an
uninitialized pointer or a bad pointer address causes the fault.

This can make it difficult to track down the error. Make sure you initialize all
pointers to a valid address before dereferencing them.

Within a variable declaration, a pointer variable can be initialized by assigning it the

address of another variable. Remember the variable whose address is assigned to the
pointer variable must be declared earlier in the program. In the example given below,
let us assign the pointer p with an address and also a value 10 through the *p.

Example 7.5

Let us say,

int x; /* x is initialized to a value 10*/

p = &x; /* Pointer declaration & Assignment */
*p=10;

Let us write the complete program as shown below:

# include <stdio.h>
main()
{
int *p; /* a pointer to an integer */
int x;
p = &x;
*p=10;
printf("The value of x is %d",*p);
printf("\nThe address in which the x is stored is %d",p);
}

OUTPUT

The value of x is 10
The address in which the x is stored is 52004

This statement puts the value of 20 at the memory location whose address is the value
of px. As we know that the value of px is the address of x and so the old value of x is
replaced by 20. This is equivalent to assigning 20 to x. Thus we can change the value
of a variable indirectly using a pointer and the indirection operator.

7.4.1 Pointer to a Pointer

The concept of pointer can be extended further. As we have seen earlier, a pointer
variable can be assigned the address of an ordinary variable. Now, this variable itself
could be another pointer. This means that a pointer can contain address of another
pointer. The following program will makes you the concept clear.

Example 7.6

/* Program that declares a pointer to a pointer */

# include<stdio.h>
main()
{
160
 int i = 100; Pointers
int *pi;
int **pii;
pi = &i;
pii = &pi;

printf ("Address of i = %u \n", &i);

printf("Address of i = %u \n", pi);
printf("Address of i = %u \n", *pii);
printf("Address of pi = %u \n", &pi);
printf("Address of pi = %u \n", pii);
printf("Address of pii = %u \n", &pii);
printf("Value of i = %d \n", i);
printf("Value of i = %d \n", *(&i));
printf("Value of i = %d \n", *pi);
printf("Value of i = %d", **pii);
}

OUTPUT

Address of i = 65524
Address of i = 65524
Address of i = 65524
Address of pi = 65522
Address of pi = 65522
Address of pii = 65520

Value of i = 100
Value of i = 100
Value of i = 100
Value of i = 100

Consider the following memory map for the above shown example:

pii pi i Variable
65522 65524 100 Value

65520 65522 65524 Address

7.4.2 Null Pointer Assignment

It does make sense to assign an integer value to a pointer variable. An exception is an
assignment of 0, which is sometimes used to indicate some special condition. A
macro is used to represent a null pointer. That macro goes under the name NULL.
Thus, setting the value of a pointer using the NULL, as with an assignment statement
such as ptr = NULL, tells that the pointer has become a null pointer. Similarly, as
one can test the condition for an integer value as zero or not, like if (i == 0), as well
we can test the condition for a null pointer using if(ptr == NULL) or you can even
set a pointer to NULL to indicate that it’s no longer in use. Let us see an example
given below.

Example 7.7

# include<stdio.h>
# define NULL 0
161
Functions, Structures,
main()
Pointers and {
File Handling in C int *pi = NULL;
printf(“The value of pi is %u”, pi);
}

OUTPUT

The value of pi is 0

Check Your Progress 1

1. How is a pointer variable being declared? What is the purpose of data type
included in the pointer declaration?

……………………………………………………………………………………

……………………………………………………………………………………

……………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………
2. What would be the output of following programs?

(i) void main()

{
int i = 5;
printf("Value of i = %d Address of i = %u", i, &i);
&i = 65534;
printf("\n New value of i = %d New Address of i = %u", i, &i);
}

(ii) void main()

{
int *i, *j;
j = i * 2;
printf("j = %u", j);
}

……………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………
3. Explain the effect of the following statements:

(i) int x = 10, *px = &x;

(ii) char *pc;

(iii) int x;
void *ptr = &x;
*(int *) ptr = 10;

…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
162
 Pointers

7.5 POINTER ARITHMETIC

Pointer variables can also be used in arithmetic expressions. The following

operations can be carried out on pointers:

1. Pointers can be incremented or decremented to point to different locations like

ptr1 = ptr2 + 3;
ptr ++;
-- ptr;

However, ptr++ will cause the pointer ptr to point the next address value of its type.
For example, if ptr is a pointer to float with an initial value of 65526, then after the
operation ptr ++ or ptr = ptr+1, the value of ptr would be 65530. Therefore, if we
increment or decrement a pointer, its value is increased or decreased by the length of
the data type that it points to.

2. If ptr1 and ptr2 are properly declared and initialized pointers, the following
operations are valid:

res = res + *ptr1;

*ptr1 = *ptr2 + 5;
prod = *ptr1 * *ptr2;
quo = *ptr1 / *ptr2;

Note that there is a blank space between / and * in the last statement because if you
write /* together, then it will be considered as the beginning of a comment and the
statement will fail.

3. Expressions like ptr1 == ptr2, ptr1 < ptr2, and ptr2 != ptr1 are permissible
provided the pointers ptr1 and ptr2 refer to same and related variables. These
comparisons are common in handling arrays.

Suppose p1 and p2 are pointers to related variables. The following operations cannot
work with respect to pointers:

1. Pointer variables cannot be added. For example, p1 = p1 + p2 is not valid.

2. Multiplication or division of a pointer with a constant is not allowed. For

example, p1 * p2 or p2 / 5 are invalid.

3. An invalid pointer reference occurs when a pointer’s value is referenced even

though the pointer doesn’t point to a valid block. Suppose p and q are two
pointers. If we say, p = q; when q is uninitialized. The pointer p will then
become uninitialized as well, and any reference to *p is an invalid pointer
reference.

7.6 PASSING POINTERS TO FUNCTIONS

As we have studied in the FUNCITONS that arguments can generally be passed to

functions in one of the two following ways:

1. Pass by value method

2. Pass by reference method

163
Functions, Structures,
In the first method, when arguments are passed by value, a copy of the values of
Pointers and actual arguments is passed to the calling function. Thus, any changes made to the
File Handling in C variables inside the function will have no effect on variables used in the actual
argument list.

However, when arguments are passed by reference (i.e. when a pointer is passed as
an argument to a function), the address of a variable is passed. The contents of that
address can be accessed freely, either in the called or calling function. Therefore, the
function called by reference can change the value of the variable used in the call.

Here is a simple program that illustrates the difference.

Example 7.8

Write a program to swap the values using the pass by value and pass by reference
methods.

/* Program that illustrates the difference between ordinary arguments, which are
passed by value, and pointer arguments, which are passed by reference */

# include <stdio.h>
main()
{
int x = 10;
int y = 20;
void swapVal( int, int ); /* function prototype */
void swapRef( int *, int * ); /*function prototype*/
printf("PASS BY VALUE METHOD\n");
printf("Before calling function swapVal x=%d y=%d",x,y);
swapVal(x, y); /* copy of the arguments are passed */
printf("\nAfter calling function swapVal x=%d y=%d",x,y);
printf("\n\nPASS BY REFERENCE METHOD");
printf("\nBefore calling function swapRef x=%d y=%d",x,y);
swapRef(&x,&y); /*address of arguments are passed */
printf("\nAfter calling function swapRef x=%d y=%d",x,y);
}

/* Function using the pass by value method*/

void swapVal(int x, int y)
{
int temp;
temp = x;
x = y;
y = temp;
printf("\nWithin function swapVal x=%d y=%d",x,y);
return;
}

/*Function using the pass by reference method*/

void swapRef(int *px, int *py)
{
int temp;
temp = *px;
*px = *py;
*py = temp;
printf("\nWithin function swapRef *px=%d *py=%d",*px,*py);
return;
}
164
 Pointers
OUTPUT

PASS BY VALUE METHOD

Before calling function swapVal x=10 y=20
Within function swapVal x=20 y=10
After calling function swapVal x=10 y=20

PASS BY REFERENCE METHOD

Before calling function swapRef x=10 y=20
Within function swapRef *px=20 *py=10
After calling function swapRef x=20 y=10

This program contains two functions, swapVal and swapRef.

In the function swapVal, arguments x and y are passed by value. So, any changes to
the arguments are local to the function in which the changes occur. Note the values of
x and y remain unchanged even after exchanging the values of x and y inside the
function swapVal.

Now consider the function swapRef. This function receives two pointers to integer
variables as arguments identified as pointers by the indirection operators that appear
in argument declaration. This means that in the function swapRef, arguments x and y
are passed by reference. So, any changes made to the arguments inside the function
swapRef are reflected in the function main(). Note the values of x and y is
interchanged after the function call swapRef.

7.6.1 A Function returning more than one value

Using call by reference method we can make a function return more than one value at
a time, which is not possible in the call by value method. The following program will
makes you the concept very clear.

Example 7.9

Write a program to find the perimeter and area of a rectangle, if length and breadth
are given by the user.

/* Program to find the perimeter and area of a rectangle*/

#include <stdio.h>
void main()
{
float len,br;
float peri, ar;
void periarea(float length, float breadth, float *, float *);
printf("\nEnter the length and breadth of a rectangle in metres: \n");
scanf("%f %f",&len,&br);
periarea(len,br,&peri,&ar);
printf("\nPerimeter of the rectangle is %f metres", peri);
printf("\nArea of the rectangle is %f sq. metres", ar);
}

void periarea(float length, float breadth, float *perimeter, float *area)

{
*perimeter = 2 *(length +breadth);
*area = length * breadth;
}
165
Functions, Structures,
Pointers and OUTPUT
File Handling in C
Enter the length and breadth of a rectangle in metres:
23.0 3.0
Perimeter of the rectangle is 52.000000 metres
Area of the rectangle is 69.000000 sq. metres

Here in the above program, we have seen that the function periarea is returning two
values. We are passing the values of len and br but, addresses of peri and ar. As we
are passing the addresses of peri and ar, any change that we make in values stored at
addresses contained in the variables *perimeter and *area, would make the change
effective even in main() also.

7.6.2 Function returning a pointer

A function can also return a pointer to the calling program, the way it returns an int, a
float or any other data type. To return a pointer, a function must explicitly mention in
the calling program as well as in the function prototype. Let’s illustrate this with an
example:

Example: 7.10

Write a program to illustrate a function returning a pointer.

/*Program that shows how a function returns a pointer */

# include<stdio.h>

void main()
{
float *a;
float *func(); /* function prototype */
a = func();
printf("Address = %u", a);
}
float *func()
{
float r = 5.2;
return(&r);
}

OUTPUT

Address = 65516

This program only shows how a function can return a pointer. This concept will be
used later while handling arrays.

Check Your Progress 2

1. Tick mark(  )whether each of the following statements are true or false.

(i) An integer is subtracted from a pointer variable. True False

(ii) Pointer variables can be compared. True False

(iii) Pointer arguments are passed by value. True False

166
 Pointers
(iv) Value of a local variable in a function can be
changed by another function. True False

(v) A function can return more than one value. True False

(vi) A function can return a pointer. True False

7.7 ARRAYS AND POINTERS

Pointers and arrays are so closely related. An array declaration such as int arr[ 5 ]
will lead the compiler to pick an address to store a sequence of 5 integers, and arr is a
name for that address. The array name in this case is the address where the sequence
of integers starts. Note that the value is not the first integer in the sequence, nor is it
the sequence in its entirety. The value is just an address.

Now, if arr is a one-dimensional array, then the address of the first array element can
be written as &arr[0] or simply arr. Moreover, the address of the second array
element can be written as &arr[1] or simply (arr+1). In general, address of array
element (i+1) can be expressed as either &arr[ i] or as (arr+ i). Thus, we have two
different ways for writing the address of an array element. In the latter case i.e,
expression (arr+ i) is a symbolic representation for an address rather than an
arithmetic expression. Since &arr[ i] and (ar+ i) both represent the address of the ith
element of arr, so arr[ i] and *(ar + i) both represent the contents of that address i.e.,
the value of ith element of arr.

Note that it is not possible to assign an arbitrary address to an array name or to an

array element. Thus, expressions such as arr, (arr+ i) and arr[ i] cannot appear on
the left side of an assignment statement. Thus we cannot write a statement such as:

&arr[0] = &arr[1]; /* Invalid */

However, we can assign the value of one array element to another through a pointer,
for example,

ptr = &arr[0]; /* ptr is a pointer to arr[ 0] */

arr[1] = *ptr; /* Assigning the value stored at address to arr[1] */

Here is a simple program that will illustrate the above-explained concepts:

Example 7.11

/* Program that accesses array elements of a one-dimensional array using pointers */

# include<stdio.h>
main()
{

int arr[ 5 ] = {10, 20, 30, 40, 50};

int i;

for(i = 0; i < 5; i++)

{
printf("i=%d\t arr[i]=%d\t *(arr+i)=%d\t", i, arr[i], *(arr+i));
printf("&arr[i]=%u\t arr+i=%u\n", &arr[i],(arr+i)); }
}
167
Functions, Structures,
Pointers and OUTPUT:
File Handling in C
i=0 arr[i]=10 *(arr+i)=10 &arr[i]=65516 arr+i=65516
i=1 arr[i]=20 *(arr+i)=20 &arr[i]=65518 arr+i=65518
i=2 arr[i]=30 *(arr+i)=30 &arr[i]=65520 arr+i=65520
i=3 arr[i]=40 *(arr+i)=40 &arr[i]=65522 arr+i=65522
i=4 arr[i]=50 *(arr+i)=50 &arr[i]=65524 arr+i=65524

Note that i is added to a pointer value (address) pointing to integer data type (i.e., the
array name) the result is the pointer is increased by i times the size (in bytes) of
integer data type. Observe the addresses 65516, 65518 and so on. So if ptr is a char
pointer, containing addresses a, then ptr+1 is a+1. If ptr is a float pointer, then ptr+
1 is a+ 4.

Pointers and Multidimensional Arrays

C allows multidimensional arrays, lays them out in memory as contiguous locations,
and does more behind the scenes address arithmetic. Consider a 2-dimensional array.

int arr[ 3 ][ 3 ] = {{1, 2, 3}, {4, 5, 6}, {7, 8, 9}};

The compiler treats a 2 dimensional array as an array of arrays. As you know, an

array name is a pointer to the first element within the array. So, arr points to the first
3-element array, which is actually the first row (i.e., row 0) of the two-dimensional
array. Similarly, (arr + 1) points to the second 3-element array (i.e., row 1) and so
on. The value of this pointer, *(arr + 1), refers to the entire row. Since row 1 is a one-
dimensional array, (arr + 1) is actually a pointer to the first element in row 1. Now
add 2 to this pointer. Hence, (*(arr + 1) + 2) is a pointer to element 2 (i.e., the third
element) in row 1. The value of this pointer, *(*(arr + 1) + 2), refers to the element
in column 2 of row 1. These relationships are illustrated below:

arr 1 2 3 First 1-d array

y
(arr+1) 4 5 6 Second 1-d array

(arr + 2) 7 8 9 Third 1-d array

*(arr + 2) *(*(arr+2) + 2)

7.8 ARRAY OF POINTERS

The way there can be an array of integers, or an array of float numbers, similarly,
there can be array of pointers too. Since a pointer contains an address, an array of
pointers would be a collection of addresses. For example, a multidimensional array
can be expressed in terms of an array of pointers rather than a pointer to a group of
contiguous arrays.

Two-dimensional array can be defined as a one-dimensional array of integer pointers

by writing:

int *arr[3];
168
rather than the conventional array definition, Pointers

int arr[3][5];

Similarly, an n-dimensional array can be defined as (n-1)-dimensional array of

pointers by writing

data-type *arr[subscript 1] [subscript 2]…. [subscript n-1];

The subscript1, subscript2 indicate the maximum number of elements associated with
each subscript.

Example 7.12

Write a program in which a two-dimensional array is represented as an array of

integer pointers to a set of single-dimensional integer arrays.

/* Program calculates the difference of the corresponding elements of two table of

integers */

# include <stdio.h>
# include <stdlib.h>
# define MAXROWS 3
void main()
{
int *ptr1[MAXROWS], *ptr2 [MAXROWS], *ptr3 [MAXROWS];
int rows, cols, i, j;
void inputmat(int *[ ], int, int);
void dispmat(int *[ ], int, int);
void calcdiff(int *[ ], int *[ ], int *[ ], int, int);

printf("Enter no. of rows & columns \n");

scanf("%d%d", &rows, &cols);

for(i = 0; i < rows; i++)

{
ptr1[ i ] =(int *) malloc(cols * sizeof(int));
ptr2[ i ] =(int *) malloc(cols * sizeof(int));
ptr3[ i ] =(int *) malloc(cols * sizeof(int));
}

printf("Enter values in first matrix \n");

inputmat(ptr1, rows, cols);
printf("Enter values in second matrix \n");
inputmat(ptr2, rows, cols);
calcdiff(ptr1, ptr2, ptr3, rows, cols);
printf("Display difference of the two matrices \n");
dispmat(ptr3, rows, cols);
}

void inputmat(int *ptr1[MAXROWS], int m, int n)

{
int i, j;
for(i = 0; i < m; i++)
{
for(j = 0; j < n; j++)
{
scanf("%d",(*(ptr1 + i) + j));
169
Functions, Structures,
}
Pointers and }
File Handling in C return;
}

void dispmat(int *ptr3[ MAXROWS ], int m, int n)

{
int i, j;
for(i = 0; i < m; i++)
{
for(j = 0; j < n; j++)
{
printf("%d ", *(*(ptr3 + i) + j));
}
printf("\n");
}
return;
}

void calcdiff(int *ptr1[ MAXROWS ], int *ptr2 [ MAXROWS ],

int *ptr3[MAXROWS], int m, int n)
{
int i, j;
for(i = 0; i < m; i++)
{
for(j = 0; j < n; j++)
{
*(*(ptr3 + i) + j) = *(*(ptr1 + i) + j) - *(*(ptr2 + i) + j);
}
}
return;
}

OUTPUT

Enter no. of rows & columns

3 3
Enter values in first matrix
2 6 3
5 9 3
1 0 2
Enter values in second matrix
3 5 7
2 8 2
1 0 1
Display difference of the two matrices
-1 1 -4
3 1 1
0 0 1

In this program, ptr1, ptr2, ptr3 are each defined as an array of pointers to integers.
Each array has a maximum of MAXROWS elements. Since each element of ptr1,
ptr2, ptr3 is a pointer, we must provide each pointer with enough memory for each
row of integers. This can be done using the library function malloc included in
stdlib.h header file as follows:

ptr1[ i ] =(int *) malloc(cols * sizeof(int));

170
This function reserves a block of memory whose size(in bytes) is equivalent to cols * Pointers
sizeof(int). Since cols = 3, so 3 * 2(size of int data type) i.e., 6 is allocated to each
ptr1[ 1 ], ptr1[ 2 ] and ptr1[ 3 ]. This malloc function returns a pointer of type void.
This means that we can assign it to any type of pointer. In this case, the pointer is
type-casted to an integer type and assigned to the pointer ptr1[ 1 ], ptr1[ 2 ] and
ptr1[ 3 ]. Now, each of ptr1[ 1 ], ptr1[ 2 ] and ptr1[ 3 ] points to the first byte of the
memory allocated to the corresponding set of one-dimensional integer arrays of the
original two-dimensional array.

The process of calculating and allocating memory at run time is known as dynamic
memory allocation. The library routine malloc can be used for this purpose.

Instead of using conventional array notation, pointer notation has been used for
accessing the address and value of corresponding array elements which has been
explained to you in the previous section. The difference of the array elements within
the function calcdiff is written as

*(*(ptr3 + i) + j) = *(*(ptr1 + i) + j) - *(*(ptr2 + i) + j);

7.9 POINTERS AND STRINGS

As we have seen in strings, a string in C is an array of characters ending in the null

character(written as '\0'), which specifies where the string terminates in memory.
Like in one-dimensional arrays, a string can be accessed via a pointer to the first
character in the string. The value of a string is the(constant) address of its first
character. Thus, it is appropriate to say that a string is a constant pointer.
A string can be declared as a character array or a variable of type char *. The
declarations can be done as shown below:

char country[ ] = "INDIA";

char *country = "INDIA";

Each initialize a variable to the string “INDIA”. The second declaration creates a
pointer variable country that points to the letter I in the string "INDIA" somewhere in
memory.

Once the base address is obtained in the pointer variable country, *country would
yield the value at this address, which gets printed through,

printf("%s", *country);

Here is a program that dynamically allocates memory to a character pointer using the
library function malloc at run-time. An advantage of doing this way is that a fixed
block of memory need not be reserved in advance, as is done when initializing a
conventional character array.

Example 7.13

Write a program to test whether the given string is a palindrome or not.

/* Program tests a string for a palindrome using pointer notation */

# include <stdio.h>
# include <conio.h>
# include <stdlib.h>

main()
171
Functions, Structures,
{
Pointers and char *palin, c;
File Handling in C int i, count;

short int palindrome(char,int); /*Function Prototype */

palin =(char *) malloc(20 * sizeof(char));
printf("\nEnter a word: ");
do
{
c = getchar();
palin[i] = c;
i++;
}while(c != '\n');

i = i-1;
palin[i] = '\0';
count = i;

if(palindrome(palin,count) == 1)
printf("\nEntered word is not a palindrome.");
else
printf("\nEntered word is a palindrome");
}

short int palindrome(char *palin, int len)

{
short int i = 0, j = 0;
for(i=0 , j=len-1; i < len/2;i++,j--)
{
if(palin[i] == palin[j])
continue;
else
return(1);
}
return(0);
}

OUTPUT

Enter a word: malayalam

Entered word is a palindrome.

Enter a word: abcdba

Entered word is not a palindrome.

Array of pointers to strings

Arrays may contain pointers. We can form an array of strings, referred to as a string
array. Each entry in the array is a string, but in C a string is essentially a pointer to its
first character, so each entry in an array of strings is actually a pointer to the first
character of a string. Consider the following declaration of a string array:

char *country[ ] = {
“INDIA”, “CHINA”, “BANGLADESH”, “PAKISTAN”, “U.S”
};
172
The *country[ ] of the declaration indicates an array of five elements. The char* of Pointers
the declaration indicates that each element of array country is of type “pointer to
char”. Thus, country [0] will point to INDIA, country[ 1] will point to CHINA, and
so on.

Thus, even though the array country is fixed in size, it provides access to character
strings of any length. However, a specified amount of memory will have to be
allocated for each string later in the program, for example,

country[ i ] = (char *) malloc(15 * sizeof(char));

The country character strings could have been placed into a two-dimensional array
but such a data structure must have a fixed number of columns per row, and that
number must be as large as the largest string. Therefore, considerable memory is
wasted when a large number of strings are stored with most strings shorter than the
longest string.

As individual strings can be accessed by referring to the corresponding array element,

individual string elements be accessed through the use of the indirection operator.
For example, *( * country + 3 ) + 2 ) refers to the third character in the fourth string
of the array country. Let us see an example below.

Example 7.14

Write a program to enter a list of strings and rearrange them in alphabetical order,
using a one-dimensional array of pointers, where each pointer indicates the beginning
of a string:

/* Program to sort a list of strings in alphabetical order using an array of pointers */

# include <stdio.h>
# include <conio.h>
# include <stdlib.h>
# include <string.h>

void readinput(char *[ ], int);

void writeoutput(char *[ ], int);
void reorder(char *[ ], int);

main()
{
char *country[ 5 ];
int i;
for(i = 0; i < 5; i++)
{
country[ i ] =(char *) malloc(15 * sizeof(char));
}
printf("Enter five countries on a separate line\n");
readinput(country, 5);
reorder(country, 5);
printf("\nReordered list\n");
writeoutput(country, 5);
getch();
}

void readinput(char *country[ ], int n)

{
int i;
173
Functions, Structures,
for(i = 0; i < n; i++)
Pointers and { scanf("%s", country[ i ]); }
File Handling in C return;
}

void writeoutput(char *country[ ], int n)

{
int i;
for(i = 0; i < n; i++)
{ printf("%s", country[ i ]);
printf("\n"); }
return;
}

void reorder(char *country[ ], int n)

{
int i, j;
char *temp;
for(i = 0; i < n-1; i++)
{
for(j = i+1; j < n; j++)
{
if(strcmp(country[ i ], country[ j ]) > 0)
{
temp = country[ i ];
country[ i ] = country[ j ];
country[ j ] = temp;
}
}
}
return;
}

OUTPUT

Enter five countries on a seperate line

INDIA
BANGLADESH
PAKISTAN
CHINA
SRILANKA

Reordered list
BANGLADESH
CHINA
INDIA
PAKISTAN
SRILANKA

The limitation of the string array concept is that when we are using an array of
pointers to strings we can initialize the strings at the place where we are declaring the
array, but we cannot receive the strings from keyboard using scanf().

Check Your Progress 3

1. What is meant by array of pointers?

174
 …………………………………………………………………………………… Pointers

……………………………………………………………………………………
2. How the indirection operator can be used to access a multidimensional array
element.

……………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………
3. A C program contains the following declaration.
float temp[ 3 ][ 2 ] = {{13.4, 45.5}, {16.6, 47.8}, {20.2, 40.8}};

(i) What is the meaning of temp?

(ii) What is the meaning of (temp + 2)?
(iii) What is the meaning of *(temp + 1)?
(iv) What is the meaning of (*(temp + 2) + 1)?
(v) What is the meaning of *(*(temp) + 1) + 1)?
(vi) What is the meaning of *(*(temp + 2))?

……………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………

7.10 SUMMARY

In this unit we have studied about pointers, pointer arithmetic, passing pointers to
functions, relation to arrays and the concept of dynamic memory allocation. A
pointer is simply a variable that contains an address which is a location of another
variable in memory. The unary operator &, when preceded by any variable returns its
address. C’s other unary pointer operator is *, when preceded by a pointer variable
returns a value stored at that address.

Pointers are often passed to a function as arguments by reference. This allows data
items within the calling function to be accessed, altered by the called function, and
then returned to the calling function in the altered form. There is an intimate
relationship between pointers and arrays as an array name is really a pointer to the
first element in the array. Access to the elements of array using pointers is enabled
by adding the respective subscript to the pointer value (i.e. address of zeroth element)
and the expression preceded with an indirection operator.

As pointer declaration does not allocate memory to store the objects it points at,
therefore, memory is allocated at run time known as dynamic memory allocation. The
library routine malloc can be used for this purpose.

7.11 SOLUTIONS / ANSWERS

Check Your Progress 1

1. Refer to section 7.4. The data type included in the pointer declaration, refers to the
type of data stored at the address which we will be storing in our pointer.

2. (i) Compile-time Error : Lvalue Required. Means that the left side of an
assignment operator must be an addressable expression that include a variable
or an indirection through a pointer. 175
Functions, Structures,
Pointers and (ii) Multiplication of a pointer variable with a constant is invalid.
File Handling in C
3. (i) Refer section 7.4
(ii) Refer section 7.4
(iii) This means pointers can be of type void but can’t be de-referenced without
explicit casting. This is because the compiler can’t determine the size of the
object the pointer points to.

Check Your Progress 2

1 (i) True.
(ii) True.
(iii) False.
(iv) True.
(v) True.
(vi) True.

Check Your Progress 3

1. Refer section 7.4.

2. Refer section 7.4 to comprehend the convention followed.

3. (i) Refers to the base address of the array temp.

(ii) Address of the first element of the last row of array temp i.e. address of
element 20.2.

(iii) Will give you 0. To get the value of the last element of the first array i.e. the
correct syntax would be *(*(temp+0)+1).

(iv) Address of the last element of last row of array temp i.e. of 40.8.

(v) Displays the value 47.8 i.e., second element of last row of array temp.

(vi) Displays the value 20.2 i.e., first element of last row of array temp.

7.12 FURTHER READINGS

1. Programming with C, Second Edition, Gottfried Byron S, Tata McGraw Hill,

India.
2. The C Programming Language, Second Edition, Brian Kernighan and Dennis
Richie, PHI, 2002.
3. Programming in ANSI C, Second Edition, Balaguruswamy E, Tata McGraw Hill,
India, 2002.
4. How to Solve it by Computer, R.G.Dromey, PHI, 2002.
5. C Programming in 12 easy lessons, Greg Perry, SAMS, 2002.
6. Teach Yourself C in 21 days, Fifth Edition, Peter G, Fifth edition,SAMS, 2002.

176
 File Handling
UNIT 8 FILE HANDLING

Structure

8.0 Introduction
8.1 Objectives
8.2 File Handling in C Using File Pointers
8.2.1 Open a file using the function fopen()
8.2.2 Close a file using the function fclose()
8.3 Input and Output using file pointers
8.3.1 Character Input and Output in Files
8.3.2 String Input / Output Functions
8.3.3 Formatted Input / Output Functions
8.3.4 Block Input / Output Functions
8.4 Sequential Vs Random Access Files
8.5 Positioning the File Pointer
8.6 The Unbufferred I/O - The UNIX like File Routines
8.7 Summary
8.8 Solutions / Answers
8.9 Further Readings

8.0 INTRODUCTION

The examples we have seen so far in the previous units deal with standard input and
output. When data is stored using variables, the data is lost when the program exits
unless something is done to save it. This unit discusses methods of working with files,
and a data structure to store data. C views file simply as a sequential stream of bytes.
Each file ends either with an end-of-file marker or at a specified byte number recorded
in a system maintained, administrative data structure. C supports two types of files
called binary files and text files.

The difference between these two files is in terms of storage. In text files, everything
is stored in terms of text i.e. even if we store an integer 54; it will be stored as a 3-byte
string - “54\0”. In a text file certain character translations may occur. For example a
newline(\n) character may be converted to a carriage return, linefeed pair. This is what
Turbo C does. Therefore, there may not be one to one relationship between the
characters that are read or written and those in the external device. A binary file
contains data that was written in the same format used to store internally in main
memory.

For example, the integer value 1245 will be stored in 2 bytes depending on the
machine while it will require 5 bytes in a text file. The fact that a numeric value is in a
standard length makes binary files easier to handle. No special string to numeric
conversions is necessary.

The disk I/O in C is accomplished through the use of library functions. The ANSI
standard, which is followed by TURBO C, defines one complete set of I/O functions.
But since originally C was written for the UNIX operating system, UNIX standard
defines a second system of routines that handles I/O operations. The first method,
defined by both standards, is called a buffered file system. The second is the
unbuffered file system.

In this unit, we will first discuss buffered file functions and then the unbuffered file
functions in the following sections.

177
Functions, Structures, 8.1 OBJECTIVES
Pointers and
File Handling in C
After going through this unit you will be able to:

 define the concept of file pointer and file storage in C;

 create text and binary files in C;
 read and write from text and binary files;
 deal with large set of Data such as File of Records; and
 perform operations on files such as count number of words in a file, search a word
in a file, compare two files etc.

8.2 FILE HANDLING IN C USING FILE POINTERS

As already mentioned in the above section, a sequential stream of bytes ending with
an end-of-file marker is what is called a file. When the file is opened the stream is
associated with the file. By default, three files and their streams are automatically
opened when program execution begins - the standard input, standard output, and
the standard error. Streams provide communication channels between files and
programs.

For example, the standard input stream enables a program to read data from the
keyboard, and the standard output stream enables to write data on the screen.
Opening a file returns a pointer to a FILE structure (defined in <stdio.h>) that
contains information, such as size, current file pointer position, type of file etc., to
perform operations on the file. This structure also contains an integer called a file
descriptor which is an index into the table maintained by the operating system namely,
the open file table. Each element of this table contains a block called file control block
(FCB) used by the operating system to administer a particular file.

The standard input, standard output and the standard error are manipulated using file
pointers stdin, stdout and stderr. The set of functions which we are now going to
discuss come under the category of buffered file system. This file system is referred to
as buffered because, the routines maintain all the disk buffers required for reading /
writing automatically.

To access any file, we need to declare a pointer to FILE structure and then associate it
with the particular file. This pointer is referred as a file pointer and it is declared as
follows:

FILE *fp;

8.2.1 Open A File Using The Function fopen()

Once a file pointer variables has been declared, the next step is to open a file. The
fopen() function opens a stream for use and links a file with that stream. This function
returns a file pointer, described in the previous section. The syntax is as follows:

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

where mode is a string, containing the desired open status. The filename must be a
string of characters that provide a valid file name for the operating system and may
include a path specification. The legal mode strings are shown below in the table 12.1:

178
 File Handling
Table 8.1: Legal values to the fopen() mode parameter

MODE MEANING

“r” / “rt” opens a text file for read only access

“w” / “wt” creates a text file for write only access
“a” / “at” text file for appending to a file
“r+t” open a text file for read and write access
“w+t” creates a text file for read and write access,
“a+t” opens or creates a text file and read access
“rb” opens a binary file for read only access
“wb” create a binary file for write only access
“ab” binary file for appending to a file
“r+b” opens a binary or read and write access
“w+b” creates a binary or read and write access,
“a+b” open or binary file and read access

The following code fragment explains how to open a file for reading.

Code Fragment 1

#include <stdio.h>

main()
{

FILE *fp;
if ((fp=fopen(“file1.dat”, “r”))==NULL)
{
printf(“FILE DOES NOT EXIST\n”);
exit(0);
}
}

The value returned by the fopen() function is a file pointer. If any error occurs while
opening the file, the value of this pointer is NULL, a constant declared in <stdio.h>.
Always check for this possibility as shown in the above example.

8.2.2 Close A File Using The Function Fclose()

When the processing of the file is finished, the file should be closed using the fclose()
function, whose syntax is:

int fclose(FILE *fptr);

This function flushes any unwritten data for stream, discards any unread buffered
input, frees any automatically allocated buffer, and then closes the stream. The return
value is 0 if the file is closed successfully or a constant EOF, an end-of file marker, if
an error occurred. This constant is also defined in <stdio.h>. If the function fclose() is
not called explicitly, the operating system normally will close the file when the
program execution terminates.

The following code fragment explains how to close a file.

179
Functions, Structures,
Pointers and Code Fragment 2
File Handling in C
# include <stdio.h>
main()
{
FILE *fp;
if ((fp=fopen(“file1.dat”, “r”))==NULL)
{
printf(“FILE DOES NOT EXIST\n”);
exit(0);
}
……………..
……………..
……………..
…………….
/* close the file */
fclose(fp);
}

Once the file is closed, it cannot be used further. If required it can be opened in same
or another mode.

Check Your Progress 1

1. How does fopen() function links a file to a stream?

……………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………

2. Differentiate between text files and binary files.

……………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………

3. What is EOF and what is its value?

……………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………

8.3 INPUT AND OUTPUT USING FILE POINTERS

After opening the file, the next thing needed is the way to read or write the file. There
are several functions and macros defined in <stdio.h> header file for reading and
writing the file. These functions can be categorized according to the form and type of
data read or written on to a file. These functions are classified as:

 Character input/output functions

 String input/output functions
180  Formatted input/output functions
 File Handling
 Block input/output functions.

8.3.1 Character Input and Output in Files

ANSI C provides a set of functions for reading and writing character by character or
one byte at a time. These functions are defined in the standard library. They are listed
and described below:

 getc()
 putc()

getc() is used to read a character from a file and putc() is used to write a character to a
file. Their syntax is as follows:

int putc(int ch, FILE *stream);

int getc(FILE *stream);

The file pointer indicates the file to read from or write to. The character ch is formally
called an integer in putc() function but only the low order byte is used. On success
putc() returns a character(in integer form) written or EOF on failure. Similarly getc()
returns an integer but only the low order byte is used. It returns EOF when end-of-file
is reached. getc() and putc() are defined in <stdio.h> as macros not functions.

fgetc() and fputc()

Apart from the above two macros, C also defines equivalent functions to read / write
characters from / to a file. These are:

int fgetc(FILE *stream);

int fputc(int c, FILE *stream);

To check the end of file, C includes the function feof() whose prototype is:

int feof(FILE *fp);

It returns 1 if end of file has been reached or 0 if not. The following code fragment
explains the use of these functions.

Example 8.1

Write a program to copy one file to another.

/*Program to copy one file to another */

#include <stdio.h>
main()
{
FILE *fp1;
FILE *fp2;
int ch;
if((fp1=fopen(“f1.dat”,”r”)) == NULL)

{
printf(“Error opening input file\n”);
exit(0);
}
if((fp2=fopen(“f2.dat”,”w”)) == NULL)
{
181
Functions, Structures, printf(“Error opening output file\n”);
Pointers and exit(0);
File Handling in C }

while (!feof(fp1))
{
ch=getc(fp1);
putc(ch,fp2);
}
fclose(fp1);
fclose(fp2);
}

OUTPUT

If the file ”f1.dat” is not present, then the output would be:
Error opening input file
If the disk is full, then the output would be:
Error opening output file

If there is no error, then “f2.dat” would contain whatever is present in “f1.dat” after
the execution of the program, if “f2.dat” was not empty earlier, then its contents
would be overwritten.

8.3.2 String Input/Output Functions

If we want to read a whole line in the file then each time we will need to call character
input function, instead C provides some string input/output functions with the help of
which we can read/write a set of characters at one time. These are defined in the
standard library and are discussed below:

 fgets()
 fputs()

These functions are used to read and write strings. Their syntax is:

int fputs(char *str, FILE *stream);

char *fgets(char *str, int num, FILE *stream);

The integer parameter in fgets() is used to indicate that at most num-1 characters are to
be read, terminating at end-of-file or end-of-line. The end-of-line character will be
placed in the string str before the string terminator, if it is read. If end-of-file is
encountered as the first character, EOF is returned, otherwise str is returned. The
fputs() function returns a non-negative number or EOF if unsuccessful.

Example 8.2
Write a program read a file and count the number of lines in the file, assuming that a
line can contain at most 80 characters.

/*Program to read a file and count the number of lines in the file */
#include<stdio.h>
#include<conio.h>
#include<process.h>
void main()
{
FILE *fp;
182
 int cnt=0; File Handling
char str[80];

/* open a file in read mode */

if ((fp=fopen("lines.dat","r"))== NULL)
{ printf("File does not exist\n");
exit(0);
}
/* read the file till end of file is encountered */
while(!(feof(fp)))
{ fgets(str,80,fp); /*reads at most 80 characters in str */
cnt++; /* increment the counter after reading a line */
}
}/* print the number of lines */
printf(“The number of lines in the file is :%d\n”,cnt);
fclose(fp);
}

OUTPUT

Let us assume that the contents of the file “lines.dat” are as follows:

This is C programming.
I love C programming.

To be a good programmer one should have a good logic. This is a must.

C is a procedural programming language.

After the execution the output would be:

The number of lines in the file is: 4

8.3.3 Formatted Input/Output Functions

If the file contains data in the form of digits, real numbers, characters and strings, then
character input/output functions are not enough as the values would be read in the
form of characters. Also if we want to write data in some specific format to a file, then
it is not possible with the above described functions. Hence C provides a set of
formatted input/output functions. These are defined in standard library and are
discussed below:

fscanf() and fprintf()

These functions are used for formatted input and output. These are identical to scanf()
and printf() except that the first argument is a file pointer that specifies the file to be
read or written, the second argument is the format string. The syntax for these
functions is:

int fscanf(FILE *fp, char *format,. . .);

int fprintf(FILE *fp, char *format,. . .);

Both these functions return an integer indicating the number of bytes actually read or
written.

183
Functions, Structures, Example 8.3
Pointers and
File Handling in C Write a program to read formatted data (account number, name and balance) from a
file and print the information of clients with zero balance, in formatted manner on the
screen.

/* Program to read formatted data from a file */

#include<stdio.h>
main()
{
int account;
char name[30];
double bal;
FILE *fp;

if((fp=fopen("bank.dat","r"))== NULL)
printf("FILE not present \n");
else
do{
fscanf(fp,"%d%s%lf",&account,name,&bal);
if(!feof(fp))
{
if(bal==0)
printf("%d %s %lf\n",account,name,bal);
}
}while(!feof(fp));
}

OUTPUT

This program opens a file “bank.dat” in the read mode if it exists, reads the records
and prints the information (account number, name and balance) of the zero balance
records.

Let the file be as follows:

101 nuj 1200

102 Raman 1500
103 Swathi 0
104 Ajay 1600
105 Udit 0

The output would be as follows:

103 Swathi 0
105 Udit 0

8.3.4 Block Input/Output Functions

Block Input / Output functions read/write a block (specific number of bytes from/to a
file. A block can be a record, a set of records or an array. These functions are also
defined in standard library and are described below.

 fread()
 fwrite()

184
These two functions allow reading and writing of blocks of data. Their syntax is: File Handling

int fread(void *buf, int num_bytes, int count, FILE *fp);

int fwrite(void *buf, int num_bytes, int count, FILE *fp);

In case of fread(), buf is the pointer to a memory area that receives the data from the
file and in fwrite(), it is the pointer to the information to be written to the file.
num_bytes specifies the number of bytes to be read or written. These functions are
quite helpful in case of binary files. Generally these functions are used to read or write
array of records from or to a file. The use of the above functions is shown in the
following program.

Example 8.4

Write a program using fread() and fwrite() to create a file of records and then read and
print the same file.

/* Program to illustrate the fread() and fwrite() functions*/

#include<stdio.h>
#include<conio.h>
#include<process.h>
#include<string.h>

void main()
{
struct stud
{
char name[30];
int age;
int roll_no;
}s[30],st;
int i;
FILE *fp;

/*opening the file in write mode*/

if((fp=fopen("sud.dat","w"))== NULL)
{ printf("Error while creating a file\n");
exit(0); }

/* reading an array of students */

for(i=0;i<30;i++)
scanf("%s %d %d",s[i].name,s[i].age,s[i].roll_no);

/* writing to a file*/
fwrite(s,sizeof(struct stud),30,fp);
fclose(fp);

/* opening a file in read mode */

fp=fopen("stud.dat","r");

/* reading from a file and writing on the screen */

while(!feof(fp))
{
fread(&st,sizeof(struct stud),1,fp);
fprintf("%s %d %d",st.name,st.age,st.roll_no);
}
fclose(fp); }
185
Functions, Structures, OUTPUT
Pointers and
File Handling in C This program reads 30 records (name, age and roll_number) from the user, writes one
record at a time to a file. The file is closed and then reopened in read mode; the
records are again read from the file and written on to the screen.

Check Your Progress 2

1. Give the output of the following code fragment:

#include<stdio.h>
#include<process.h>
#include<conio.h>
main()
{
FILE * fp1, * fp2;
double a,b,c;

fp1=fopen(“file1”, “w”);
fp2=fopen(“file2”, “w”);

fprintf(fp1,”1 5.34 –4E02”);

fprintf(fp2,”-2\n1.245\n3.234e02\n”);
fclose(fp1);
fclose(fp2);

fp1=fopen(“file1”, “r”);
fp2=fopen(“file2”,“r”);

fscanf(fp1,“%lf %lf %lf”,&a,&b,&c);

printf(“%10lf %10lf %10lf”,a,b,c);
fscanf(fp2,”%lf %lf %lf”,&a,&b,&c);
printf(“%10.1e %10lf %10lf”,a,b,c);

fclose(fp1);
fclose(fp2);
}
……………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………

2. What is the advantage of using fread/fwrite functions?

……………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………
3. ________ and _______ functions are used for formatted input and output
from a file.

……………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………

186
 File Handling
8.4 SEQUENTIAL Vs RANDOM ACCESS FILES

We have seen in section 12.0 that C supports two type of files – text and binary files,
also two types of file systems – buffered and unbuffered file system. We can also
differentiate in terms of the type of file access as Sequential access files and random
access files. Sequential access files allow reading the data from the file in sequential
manner which means that data can only be read in sequence. All the above examples
that we have considered till now in this unit are performing sequential access.
Random access files allow reading data from any location in the file. To achieve this
purpose, C defines a set of functions to manipulate the position of the file pointer. We
will discuss these functions in the following sections.

8.5 POSITIONING THE FILE POINTER

To support random access files, C requires a function with the help of which the file
pointer can be positioned at any random location in the file. Such a function defined in
the standard library is discussed below:

The function fseek() is used to set the file position. Its prototype is:

int fseek(FILE *fp, long offset, int pos);

The first argument is the pointer to a file. The second argument is the number of bytes
to move the file pointer, counting from zero. This argument can be positive, negative
or zero depending on the desired movement. The third parameter is a flag indicating
from where in the file to compute the offset. It can have three values:

SEEK_SET(or value 0) the beginning of the file,

SEEK_CUR(or value 1) the current position and
SEEK_END(or value 2) the end of the file

These three constants are defined in <stdio.h>. If successful fseek() returns zero.
Another function rewind() is used to reset the file position to the beginning of the file.
Its prototype is:

void rewind(FILE *fp);

A call to rewind is equivalent to the call

fseek(fp,0,SEEK_SET);

Another function ftell() is used to tell the position of the file pointer. Its prototype is:

long ftell(FILE *fp);

It returns –1 on error and the position of the file pointer if successful.

Example 8.5

Write a program to search a record in an already created file and update it. Use the
same file as created in the previous example.

/*Program to search a record in an already created file*/

#include<stdio.h>
187
Functions, Structures, #include<conio.h>
Pointers and #include<stdio.h>
File Handling in C #include<process.h>
#include<string.h>
void main()
{
int r,found;
struct stud
{
char name[30];
int age;
int roll_no;
}st;
FILE *fp;
/* open the file in read/write mode */

if((fp=fopen("f1.dat","r+b"))==NULL)
{ printf("Error while opening the file \n");
exit(0);
}

/* Get the roll_no of the student */

printf("Enter the roll_no of the record to be updated\n");
found=0;
scanf("%d",&r);

/* check in the file for the existence of the roll_no */

while((!feof(fp)) && !(found))
{ fread(&st,sizeof(stud),1,fp);
if(st.roll_no == r)

/* if roll_no is found then move one record backward to update it */

{ fseek(fp,- sizeof(stud),SEEK_CUR);
printf("Enter the new name\n");
scanf("%s",st.name);
fwrite(fp,sizeof(stud),1,fp);
found=1;
}
}
if (!found)
printf("Record not present\n");
fclose(fp);
}

OUTPUT

Let the input file be as follows:

Geeta 18 101
Leena 17 102
Mahesh 23 103
Lokesh 21 104
Amit 19 105

Let the roll_no of the record to be updated be 106. Now since this roll_no is not
present the output would be:

Record not present

188
If the roll_no to be searched is 103, then if the new name is Sham, the output would File Handling
be the file with the contents:

Geeta 18 101
Leena 17 102
Sham 23 103
Lokesh 21 104
Amit 19 105

8.6 THE UNBUFFERED I/O – THE UNIX LIKE FILE

ROUTINES

The buffered I/O system uses buffered input and output, that is, the operating system
handles the details of data retrieval and storage, the system stores data temporarily
(buffers it) in order to optimize file system access. The buffered I/O functions are
handled directly as system calls without buffering by the operating system. That is
why they are also known as low level functions. This is referred to as unbuffered I/O
system because the programmer must provide and maintain all disk buffers, the
routines do not do it automatically.

The low level functions are defined in the header file <io.h>.

These functions do not use file pointer of type FILE to access a particular file, but
they use directly the file descriptors, as explained earlier, of type integer. They are
also called handles.

Opening and closing of files

The function used to open a file is open(). Its prototype is:

int open(char *filename, int mode, int access);

Here mode indicates one of the following macros defined in <fcntl.h>.

Mode:

O_RDONLY Read only

O_WRONLY Write only
O_RDWR Read / Write

The access parameter is used in UNIX environment for providing the access to
particular users and is just included here for compatibility and can be set to zero.
open() function returns –1 on failure. It is used as:

Code fragment 2

int fd;

if ((fd=open(filename,mode,0)) == -1)
{ printf(“cannot open file\n”);
exit(1); }

If the file does not exist, open() the function will not create it. For this, the function
creat() is used which will create new files and re-write old ones. The prototype is:

int creat(char *filename, int access);

189
Functions, Structures, It returns a file descriptor; if successful else it returns –1. It is not an error to create an
Pointers and already existing file, the function will just truncate its length to zero. The access
File Handling in C parameter is used to provide permissions to the users in the UNIX environment.
The function close() is used to close a file. The prototype is:

int close(int fd);

It returns zero if successful and –1 if not.

Reading, Writing and Positioning in File

The functions read() and write() are used to read from and write to a file. Their
prototypes are:

int read(int fd, void *buf, int size);

int write(int fd, void *buf, int size);

The first parameter is the file descriptor returned by open(), the second parameter
holds the data which must be typecast to the format needed by the program, the third
parameter indicates the number of bytes to transferred. The return value tells how
many bytes are actually transferred. If this value is –1, then an error must have
occurred.

Example 8.6

Write a program to copy one file to another to illustrate the use of the above functions.
The program should expect two command line arguments indicating the name of the
file to be copied and the name of the file to be created.

/* Program to copy one file to another file to illustrate the functions*/

# include<stdio.h>
# include<io.h>
#include<process.h>

typedef char arr[80];

typedef char name[30];

main()
{
arr buf;
name fname, sname;
int fd1,fd2,size;

/* check for the command line arguments */

if (argc!=3)
{ printf("Invalid number of arguments\n");
exit(0);
}
if ((fd1=open(argv[1],O_RDONLY))<0)
{ printf("Error in opening file %s \n",argv[1]);
exit(0);
}
if ((fd2=creat(argv[2],0))<0)
{ printf("Error in creating file %s \n",argv[2]);
exit(0);}

open(argv[2],O_WRONLY);
size=read(fd1,buf,80); /* read till end of file */
190
 File Handling
while (size>0)
{ write(fd2,buf,80);
size=read(fd1,buf,80);
}
close(fd1);
close(fd2);
}

OUTPUT

If the number of arguments given on the command line is not correct then output
would be:

Invalid number of arguments

One file is opened in the read mode, and another file is opened in the write mode. The
output would be as follows is the file to be read is not present (let the file be f1.dat):

Error in opening file f1.dat

The output would be as follows if the disk is full and the file cannot be created (let the
output file be f2.dat):

Error in creating file f2.dat

If there is no error contents of f1.dat will be copied to f2.dat.

lseek()

The function lseek() is provided to move to the specific position in a file. Its prototype
is:

long lseek(int fd, long offset, int pos);

This function is exactly the same as fseek() except that the file descriptor is used
instead of the file pointer.

Using the above defined functions, it is possible to write any kind of program dealing
with files.

Check Your Progress 3

1. Random access is possible in C files using function ____________.

2. Write a proper C statement with proper arguments that would be called to move the
file pointer back by 2 bytes.
……………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………

3. Indicate the header files needed to use unbuffered I/O.

……………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………
191
Functions, Structures, 8.7 SUMMARY
Pointers and
File Handling in C
In this unit, we have learnt about files and how C handles them. We have discussed
the buffered as well as unbuffered file systems. The available functions in the standard
library have been discussed. This unit provided you an ample set of programs to start
with. We have also tried to differentiate between sequential access as well as random
access file. The file pointers assigned to standard input, standard output and standard
error are stdin, stdout, and stderr respectively. The unit clearly explains the different
type of modes oof opening the file. As seen there are several functions available to
read/write from the file. The usage of a particular function depends on the application.
After reading this unit one must be able to handle large data bases in the form of files.

8.8 SOLUTIONS / ANSWERS

Check Your Progress 1

1. fopen() function links a file to a stream by returning a pointer to a FILE structure

defined in <stdio.h>. This structure contains an index called file descriptor to a
File Control Block, which is maintained by the operating system for
administrative purposes.

2. Text files and binary files differ in terms of storage. In text files everything is
stored in terms of text while binary files stores exact memory image of the data i.e.
in text files 154 would take 3 bytes of storage while in binary files it will take 2
bytes as required by an integer.

3. EOF is an end-of-file marker. It is a macro defined in <stdio.h>. Its value is –1.

Check Your progress 2

1. The output would be:

1.000000 5.340000 –400.000000 -2.0e+00 1.245000 323.400000

2. The advantage of using these functions is that they are used for block read/write,
which means we can read or write a large set of data at one time thus increasing
the speed.

3. fscanf() and fprintf() functions are used for formatted input and output from a file.

Check Your progress 3

1. Random access is possible in C files using function fseek().

2. fseek(fp, -2L, SEEK_END);

3. <io.h> and <fcntl.h>

8.9 FURTHER READINGS

1. The C Programming Language, Kernighan & Richie, PHI Publication, 2002.

2. C How to Program, Deitel & Deitel, Pearson Education, 2002.
3. Practical C Programming, Steve Oualline, Oreilly Publication, 2003.
192
 File Handling

APPENDIX-A

THE ASCII SET

The ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) character set
defines 128 characters (0 to 127 decimal, 0 to FF hexadecimal, and 0 to 177 octal).
This character set is a subset of many other character sets with 256 characters,
including the ANSI character set of MS Windows, the Roman-8 character set of HP
systems, and the IBM PC Extended Character Set of DOS, and the ISO Latin-1
character set used by Web browsers. They are not the same as the EBCDIC character
set used on IBM mainframes. The first 32 values are non-printing control characters,
such as Return and Line feed. You generate these characters on the keyboard by
holding down the Control key while you strike another key. For example, Bell is value
7, Control plus G, often shown in documents as ^G. Notice that 7 is 64 less than the
value of G (71); the Control key subtracts 64 from the value of the keys that it
modifies. The table shown below gives the list of the control and printing characters.

The Control Characters

Char Oct Dec Hex Control-Key Control Action

NUL 0 0 0 ^@ Null character
SOH 1 1 1 ^A Start of heading, = console interrupt
STX 2 2 2 ^B Start of text, maintenance mode on HP console
ETX 3 3 3 ^C End of text
EOT 4 4 4 ^D End of transmission, not the same as ETB
ENQ 5 5 5 ^E Enquiry, goes with ACK; old HP flow control
ACK 6 6 6 ^F Acknowledge, clears ENQ logon hand
BEL 7 7 7 ^G Bell, rings the bell...
BS 10 8 8 ^H Backspace, works on HP terminals/computers
HT 11 9 9 ^I Horizontal tab, move to next tab stop
LF 12 10 a ^J Line Feed
VT 13 11 b ^K Vertical tab
FF 14 12 c ^L Form Feed, page eject
CR 15 13 d ^M Carriage Return
SO 16 14 e ^N Shift Out, alternate character set
SI 17 15 f ^O Shift In, resume defaultn character set
DLE 20 16 10 ^P Data link escape
DC1 21 17 11 ^Q XON, with XOFF to pause listings; ":okay to send".
DC2 22 18 12 ^R Device control 2, block-mode flow control
DC3 23 19 13 ^S XOFF, with XON is TERM=18 flow control
DC4 24 20 14 ^T Device control 4
NAK 25 21 15 ^U Negative acknowledge
SYN 26 22 16 ^V Synchronous idle
ETB 27 23 17 ^W End transmission block, not the same as EOT
CAN 30 24 17 ^X Cancel line, MPE echoes !!!
EM 31 25 19 ^Y End of medium, Control-Y interrupt
SUB 32 26 1a ^Z Substitute
ESC 33 27 1b ^[ Escape, next character is not echoed
FS 34 28 1c ^\ File separator
193
Functions, Structures, GS 35 29 1d ^] Group separator
Pointers and RS 36 30 1e ^^ Record separator, block-mode terminator
File Handling in C
US 37 31 1f ^_ Unit separator
Printing Characters

Char Octal Dec Hex Description

SP 40 32 20 Space
! 41 33 21 Exclamation mark
" 42 34 22 Quotation mark (&quot; in HTML)
# 43 35 23 Cross hatch (number sign)
$ 44 36 24 Dollar sign
% 45 37 25 Percent sign
& 46 38 26 Ampersand
` 47 39 27 Closing single quote (apostrophe)
( 50 40 28 Opening parentheses
) 51 41 29 Closing parentheses
* 52 42 2a Asterisk (star, multiply)
+ 53 43 2b Plus
, 54 44 2c Comma
- 55 45 2d Hyphen, dash, minus
. 56 46 2e Period
/ 57 47 2f Slant (forward slash, divide)
0 60 48 30 Zero
1 61 49 31 One
2 62 50 32 Two
3 63 51 33 Three
4 64 52 34 Four
5 65 53 35 Five
6 66 54 36 Six
7 67 55 37 Seven
8 70 56 38 Eight
9 71 57 39 Nine
: 72 58 3a Colon
; 73 59 3b Semicolon
< 74 60 3c Less than sign (&lt; in HTML)
= 75 61 3d Equals sign
> 76 62 3e Greater than sign (&gt; in HTML)
? 77 63 3f Question mark
@ 100 64 40 At-sign
A 101 65 41 Uppercase A
B 102 66 42 Uppercase B
C 103 67 43 Uppercase C
D 104 68 44 Uppercase D
E 105 69 45 Uppercase E
F 106 70 46 Uppercase F
G 107 71 47 Uppercase G
H 110 72 48 Uppercase H
I 111 73 49 Uppercase I
J 112 74 4a Uppercase J
K 113 75 4b Uppercase K
194
 File Handling
L 114 76 4c Uppercase L
M 115 77 4d Uppercase M
N 116 78 4e Uppercase N
O 117 79 4f Uppercase O
P 120 80 50 Uppercase P
Q 121 81 51 Uppercase Q
R 122 82 52 Uppercase R
S 123 83 53 Uppercase S
T 124 84 54 Uppercase T
U 125 85 55 Uppercase U
V 126 86 56 Uppercase V
W 127 87 57 Uppercase W
X 130 88 58 Uppercase X
Y 131 89 59 Uppercase Y
Z 132 90 5a Uppercase Z
[ 133 91 5b Opening square bracket
\ 134 92 5c Reverse slant (Backslash)
] 135 93 5d Closing square bracket
^ 136 94 5e Caret (Circumflex)
_ 137 95 5f Underscore
` 140 96 60 Opening single quote
a 141 97 61 Lowercase a
b 142 98 62 Lowercase b
c 143 99 63 Lowercase c
d 144 100 64 Lowercase d
e 145 101 65 Lowercase e
f 146 102 66 Lowercase f
g 147 103 67 Lowercase g
h 150 104 68 Lowercase h
i 151 105 69 Lowercase i
j 152 106 6a Lowercase j
k 153 107 6b Lowercase k
l 154 108 6c Lowercase l
m 155 109 6d Lowercase m
n 156 110 6e Lowercase n
o 157 111 6f Lowercase o
p 160 112 70 Lowercase p
q 161 113 71 Lowercase q
r 162 114 72 Lowercase r
s 163 115 73 Lowercase s
t 164 116 74 Lowercase t
u 165 117 75 Lowercase u
v 166 118 76 Lowercase v
w 167 119 77 Lowercase w
x 170 120 78 Lowercase x
y 171 121 79 Lowercase y
z 172 122 7a Lowercase z
{ 173 123 7b Opening curly brace
| 174 124 7c Vertical line
195
Functions, Structures, } 175 125 7d Cloing curly brace
Pointers and ~ 176 126 7e Tilde (approximate)
File Handling in C
DEL 177 127 7f Delete (rubout), cross-hatch box

196