C File Handling

A file is a container in computer storage devices used for storing data.

Why files are needed?

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

 If you have to enter a large number of data, it will take a lot of time to
enter them all.
However, if you have a file containing all the data, you can easily access
the contents of the file using a few commands in C.
 You can easily move your data from one computer to another without any
changes.

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

1. Text files

2. Binary files
1. Text files

Text files are the normal .txt files. You can easily create text files using any
simple text editors such as Notepad.
When you open those files, you'll see all the contents within the file as plain
text. You can easily edit or delete the contents.

They take minimum effort to maintain, are easily readable, and provide the
least security and takes bigger storage space.

2. Binary files

Binary files are mostly the .bin files in your computer.

Instead of storing data in plain text, they store it in the binary form (0's and
1's).

They can hold a higher amount of data, are not readable easily, and provides
better security than text files.

File Operations
In C, you can perform four major operations on files, either text or binary:

1. Creating a new file

2. Opening an existing file

3. Closing a file

4. Reading from and writing information to a file

Working with files
When working with files, you need to declare a pointer of type file. This
declaration is needed for communication between the file and the program.

FILE *fptr;

Opening a file - for creation and edit

Opening a file is performed using the  fopen()  function defined in
the  stdio.h  header file.
The syntax for opening a file in standard I/O is:

ptr = fopen("fileopen","mode");

For example,

fopen("E:\\cprogram\\newprogram.txt","w");

fopen("E:\\cprogram\\oldprogram.bin","rb");

 Let's suppose the file  newprogram.txt  doesn't exist in the location  E:\cprogram .
The first function creates a new file named  newprogram.txt  and opens it for
writing as per the mode 'w'.
The writing mode allows you to create and edit (overwrite) the contents of
the file.
 Now let's suppose the second binary file  oldprogram.bin  exists in the
location  E:\cprogram . The second function opens the existing file for reading
in binary mode 'rb'.
The reading mode only allows you to read the file, you cannot write into
the file.
Opening Modes in Standard I/O

Mod
Meaning of Mode During Inexistence of file
e

If the file does not exist, fopen()

r Open for reading.
returns NULL.

If the file does not exist, fopen()

rb Open for reading in binary mode.
returns NULL.

If the file exists, its contents are

overwritten.
w Open for writing.
If the file does not exist, it will be
created.

If the file exists, its contents are

overwritten.
wb Open for writing in binary mode.
If the file does not exist, it will be
created.

Open for append. If the file does not exist, it will be

a
Data is added to the end of the file. created.

Open for append in binary mode. If the file does not exist, it will be
ab
Data is added to the end of the file. created.

If the file does not exist, fopen()

r+ Open for both reading and writing.
returns NULL.

Open for both reading and writing in If the file does not exist, fopen()
rb+
binary mode. returns NULL.

w+ Open for both reading and writing. If the file exists, its contents are
 Opening Modes in Standard I/O

Mod
Meaning of Mode During Inexistence of file
e

overwritten.
If the file does not exist, it will be
created.

If the file exists, its contents are

Open for both reading and writing in overwritten.
wb+
binary mode. If the file does not exist, it will be
created.

If the file does not exist, it will be

a+ Open for both reading and appending.
created.

Open for both reading and appending in If the file does not exist, it will be
ab+
binary mode. created.

Closing a File
The file (both text and binary) should be closed after reading/writing.

Closing a file is performed using the  fclose()  function.

fclose(fptr);

Here,  fptr  is a file pointer associated with the file to be closed.

Reading and writing to a text file

For reading and writing to a text file, we use the
functions  fprintf()  and  fscanf().
They are just the file versions of  printf()  and  scanf() . The only difference is
that  fprintf()  and  fscanf()  expects a pointer to the structure FILE.

Example 1: Write to a text file

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

int main()
{
int num;
FILE *fptr;

// use appropriate location if you are using MacOS or Linux

fptr = fopen("C:\\program.txt","w");

if(fptr == NULL)
{
printf("Error!");
exit(1);
}

printf("Enter num: ");

scanf("%d",&num);

fprintf(fptr,"%d",num);
fclose(fptr);

return 0;
}

This program takes a number from the user and stores in the file  program.txt .
After you compile and run this program, you can see a text
file  program.txt  created in C drive of your computer. When you open the file,
you can see the integer you entered.

Example 2: Read from a text file

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

int main()
{
int num;
FILE *fptr;

if ((fptr = fopen("C:\\program.txt","r")) == NULL){

printf("Error! opening file");

// Program exits if the file pointer returns NULL.

exit(1);
}

fscanf(fptr,"%d", &num);

printf("Value of n=%d", num);

fclose(fptr);

return 0;
}

This program reads the integer present in the  program.txt  file and prints it onto
the screen.
If you successfully created the file from Example 1, running this program will
get you the integer you entered.
Other functions like  fgetchar() ,  fputc()  etc. can be used in a similar way.
Reading and writing to a binary file
Functions  fread()  and  fwrite()  are used for reading from and writing to a file on
the disk respectively in case of binary files.

Writing to a binary file

To write into a binary file, you need to use the  fwrite()  function. The functions
take four arguments:
1. address of data to be written in the disk

2. size of data to be written in the disk

3. number of such type of data

4. pointer to the file where you want to write.

fwrite(addressData, sizeData, numbersData, pointerToFile);

Example 3: Write to a binary file using fwrite()

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

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

int main()
{
int n;
struct threeNum num;
FILE *fptr;

if ((fptr = fopen("C:\\program.bin","wb")) == NULL){

printf("Error! opening file");

// Program exits if the file pointer returns NULL.

exit(1);
}

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

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

return 0;
}

In this program, we create a new file  program.bin  in the C drive.

We declare a structure  threeNum  with three numbers -  n1, n2 and n3 , and define it
in the main function as num.
Now, inside the for loop, we store the value into the file using  fwrite() .
The first parameter takes the address of  num  and the second parameter takes
the size of the structure  threeNum .
Since we're only inserting one instance of  num , the third parameter is  1 . And,
the last parameter  *fptr  points to the file we're storing the data.
Finally, we close the file.
Reading from a binary file

Function  fread()  also take 4 arguments similar to the  fwrite()  function as

above.

fread(addressData, sizeData, numbersData, pointerToFile);

Example 4: Read from a binary file using fread()

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

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

int main()
{
int n;
struct threeNum num;
FILE *fptr;

if ((fptr = fopen("C:\\program.bin","rb")) == NULL){

printf("Error! opening file");

// Program exits if the file pointer returns NULL.

exit(1);
}

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

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

return 0;
}

In this program, you read the same file  program.bin  and loop through the
records one by one.
In simple terms, you read one  threeNum  record of  threeNum  size from the file
pointed by  *fptr  into the structure  num .
You'll get the same records you inserted in Example 3.

Getting data using fseek()

If you have many records inside a file and need to access a record at a
specific position, you need to loop through all the records before it to get the
record.

This will waste a lot of memory and operation time. An easier way to get to the
required data can be achieved using  fseek() .
As the name suggests,  fseek()  seeks the cursor to the given record in the file.

Syntax of fseek()

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

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

Different whence in fseek()

Whence Meaning

SEEK_SET Starts the offset from the beginning of the file.

SEEK_END Starts the offset from the end of the file.

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

Example 5: fseek()

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

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

int main()
{
int n;
struct threeNum num;
FILE *fptr;

if ((fptr = fopen("C:\\program.bin","rb")) == NULL){

printf("Error! opening file");

// Program exits if the file pointer returns NULL.

 exit(1);
}

// Moves the cursor to the end of the file

fseek(fptr, -sizeof(struct threeNum), SEEK_END);

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

{
fread(&num, sizeof(struct threeNum), 1, fptr);
printf("n1: %d\tn2: %d\tn3: %d\n", num.n1, num.n2, num.n3);
fseek(fptr, -2*sizeof(struct threeNum), SEEK_CUR);
}
fclose(fptr);

return 0;
}