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C - Error Handling

The document discusses error handling in C programming. It explains that C does not provide direct support for error handling but allows accessing low-level return values from functions. Functions typically return -1 or NULL on error and set the global errno variable to indicate the error code. The perror() and strerror() functions can display the text message associated with errno. Common errors like attempting to open a non-existent file or dividing by zero are demonstrated. The importance of checking return values and exiting with EXIT_FAILURE or EXIT_SUCCESS status is also covered.

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Marcelo Luna
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© © All Rights Reserved
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10 views

C - Error Handling

The document discusses error handling in C programming. It explains that C does not provide direct support for error handling but allows accessing low-level return values from functions. Functions typically return -1 or NULL on error and set the global errno variable to indicate the error code. The perror() and strerror() functions can display the text message associated with errno. Common errors like attempting to open a non-existent file or dividing by zero are demonstrated. The importance of checking return values and exiting with EXIT_FAILURE or EXIT_SUCCESS status is also covered.

Uploaded by

Marcelo Luna
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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C - Error Handling https://www.tutorialspoint.com/cprogramming/c_error_han...

C - Error Handling

As such, C programming does not provide direct support for error handling but being a
system programming language, it provides you access at lower level in the form of return
values. Most of the C or even Unix function calls return -1 or NULL in case of any error and
set an error code errno. It is set as a global variable and indicates an error occurred during
any function call. You can find various error codes defined in <error.h> header file.

So a C programmer can check the returned values and can take appropriate action
depending on the return value. It is a good practice, to set errno to 0 at the time of initializing
a program. A value of 0 indicates that there is no error in the program.

errno, perror(). and strerror()


The C programming language provides perror() and strerror() functions which can be used
to display the text message associated with errno.

• The perror() function displays the string you pass to it, followed by a colon, a space,
and then the textual representation of the current errno value.

• The strerror() function, which returns a pointer to the textual representation of the
current errno value.

Let's try to simulate an error condition and try to open a file which does not exist. Here I'm
using both the functions to show the usage, but you can use one or more ways of printing
your errors. Second important point to note is that you should use stderr file stream to output
all the errors.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <string.h>

extern int errno ;

int main () {

FILE * pf;
int errnum;
pf = fopen ("unexist.txt", "rb");

if (pf == NULL) {

errnum = errno;
fprintf(stderr, "Value of errno: %d\n", errno);

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C - Error Handling https://www.tutorialspoint.com/cprogramming/c_error_han...

perror("Error printed by perror");


fprintf(stderr, "Error opening file: %s\n", strerror( errnum ));
} else {

fclose (pf);
}

return 0;
}

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result −

Value of errno: 2
Error printed by perror: No such file or directory
Error opening file: No such file or directory

Divide by Zero Errors


It is a common problem that at the time of dividing any number, programmers do not check if
a divisor is zero and finally it creates a runtime error.

The code below fixes this by checking if the divisor is zero before dividing −

Live Demo
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

main() {

int dividend = 20;


int divisor = 0;
int quotient;

if( divisor == 0){


fprintf(stderr, "Division by zero! Exiting...\n");
exit(-1);
}

quotient = dividend / divisor;


fprintf(stderr, "Value of quotient : %d\n", quotient );

exit(0);
}

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result −

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C - Error Handling https://www.tutorialspoint.com/cprogramming/c_error_han...

Division by zero! Exiting...

Program Exit Status


It is a common practice to exit with a value of EXIT_SUCCESS in case of program coming
out after a successful operation. Here, EXIT_SUCCESS is a macro and it is defined as 0.

If you have an error condition in your program and you are coming out then you should exit
with a status EXIT_FAILURE which is defined as -1. So let's write above program as follows
−

Live Demo
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

main() {

int dividend = 20;


int divisor = 5;
int quotient;

if( divisor == 0) {
fprintf(stderr, "Division by zero! Exiting...\n");
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}

quotient = dividend / divisor;


fprintf(stderr, "Value of quotient : %d\n", quotient );

exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
}

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result −

Value of quotient : 4

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