LAB 12

File I/O

NIDA MUNAWAR
Introduction to filing
Files are used to store data in a storage device permanently.
File handling provides a mechanism to store the output of a program in a
file and to perform various operations on it.

Streams
C++ I/O occurs in streams, which are sequences of bytes.

In input operations, the bytes flow from a device (e.g., a keyboard, a disk drive, a
network connection, etc.) to main memory.

In output operations, bytes flow from main memory to a device (e.g., a display
screen, a printer, a disk drive, a network connection, etc.).
So far, we have been using the iostream standard library, which
provides cin and cout methods for reading from standard input and writing to
standard output respectively.

Stream Input/Output Classes and Objects

Stream-I/O template hierarchy
Opening a File
Now the first step to open the particular file for read or write operation. We can
open file by
1. passing file name in constructor at the time of object creation
2. using the open method

File open using constructor method

File open using open() method
The three objects, that is, fstream, ofstream, and ifstream, have the open() function
defined in them. The function takes this syntax:

open (file_name, mode);

 The file_name parameter denotes the name of the file to open.
The mode parameter is optional. It can take any of the following values:

Mode Flag & Description

File Open Mode

Open()
• Opening a file associates a file stream variable declared in the program with a
physical file at the source, such as a disk.
• In the case of an input file:
• the file must exist before the open statement executes.
• If the file does not exist, the open statement fails and the input stream enters the
fail state
• An output file does not have to exist before it is opened;
• if the output file does not exist, the computer prepares an empty file for output.
• If the designated output file already exists, by default, the old contents are erased
when the file is opened.

Validate the file before trying to access

File Processing Function

• open(): To create a file
• close(): To close an existing file
• get(): to read a single character from the file
• put(): to write a single character in the file
• read(): to read data from a file..>>
• write(): to write data into a file.. <<

How to Close Files

Once a C++ program terminates, it automatically

• flushes the streams

• releases the allocated memory
 • closes opened files.

However, as a programmer, you should learn to close open files before the
program terminates.

The fstream, ofstream, and ifstream objects have the close() function for closing
files. The function takes this syntax:

void close();

How to Write to Files

You can write to file right from your C++ program. You use stream insertion
operator (<<) for this. The text to be written to the file should be enclosed within
double-quotes.
How to Read from Files
You can read information from files into your C++ program. This is possible using
stream extraction operator (>>). You use the operator in the same way you use it to
read user input from the keyboard. However, instead of using the cin object, you
use the ifstream/ fstream object.
 1. an else statement to state what to do if the file is found.
2. Create a char variable named ch.
3. Create a while loop for iterating over the file contents.
4. Write/store contents of the file in the variable ch.
5. Use an if condition and eof() function that is, end of the file, to ensure the
compiler keeps on reading from the file if the end is not reached.
6. Use a break statement to stop reading from the file once the end is reached.
7. Print the contents of variable ch on the console.
8. End of the while body.

Using Member Function getline

as it name states, read a whole line, or at least till a delimiter that can be specified.
Syntax:
istream& getline(istream& is,
string& str, char delim);

Parameters:
• is: It is an object of istream class and tells the function about the
stream from where to read the input from.
• str: It is a string object, the input is stored in this object after being
read from the stream.
• delim: It is the delimitation character which tells the function to stop
reading further input after reaching this character.

Syntax:
istream& getline (istream& is, string& str);
The second declaration is almost the same as that of the first one. The only
difference is, the latter have a delimitation character which is by default new
line(\n) character.

Read a line
Read character by character
Example
Examples make use of additional functions from cin object, like getline() function
to read the line from outside and ignore() function to ignore the extra characters
left by previous read statement

write() function
The write() function is used to write object or record (sequence of bytes) to the file. A
record may be an array, structure or class.

Syntax of write() function

fstream fout;
fout.write( (char *) &obj, sizeof(obj) );

The write() function takes two arguments.

&obj : Initial byte of an object stored in memory.
sizeof(obj) : size of object represents the total number of bytes to be written from initial byte.

Example of write() function

#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
using namespace std;
class student{
int roll;
char name[25];
float marks;
public:
 void getdata(){
cout << "enter roll no" << endl;
cin >> roll;

cout << "enter name" << endl;

cin >> name;

cout << "enter marks" << endl;

cin >> marks;
}

void addRecord()
{
fstream f;
student s;
f.open("studen.dat",ios::app | ios::binary );
s.getdata();
f.write((char*)&s, sizeof(s));
f.close();

}
};

int main(){
student s;
 char c = 'n';
do{
s.addRecord();
cout << "do you want to add another record";
cin >> c;
} while (c == 'y' || c == 'Y');
cout << "data written successfully";

read() function
The read() function is used to read object (sequence of bytes) to the file.

Syntax of read() function

fstream fin;
fin.read( (char *) &obj, sizeof(obj) );

The read() function takes two arguments.

&obj : Initial byte of an object stored in file.
sizeof(obj) : size of object represents the total number of bytes to be read from initial
byte.

The read() function returns NULL if no data read.

Example of read() function

#include <iostream>

#include <fstream>

using namespace std;

class student{
 int roll;

char name[25];

float marks;

public:

void displayStudent(){

cout<<"Roll no: "<<roll<<endl

<<"NAME: "<<name<<endl

<<"Marks: "<<marks<<endl;

void Readdata()

fstream f;

student s;

f.open("studen.dat",ios::in | ios::binary);

if(f.read((char*)&s,sizeof(s))){

cout<<endl<<endl;

s.displayStudent();

else{

cout<<"Error in reading data from file...\n";

};

int main(){
 student s;

s.Readdata();

return 0;

Exercise
QUESTION#1
Write a program to implement I/O operations on characters. I/O operations includes inputting a
string,
calculating length of the string, Storing the String in a file and fetch the stored characters from it.
QUESTION#2
Write a program to copy the contents of one file to another.
QUESTION#3
Take a class Person having two attributes name and age.
Include a parametrized constructor to give values to all data members.
In main function

i. Create an instance of the person class and name it person1.

ii. Create a binary file person.bin and write person1 object into it.
iii. Read the person1 object from the file.
iv. Return 0

QUESTION#4
Take a class Participant having three attributes (ID, name and score) and following member
functions
Input () function takes data of the object and stores it in a file name participant.dat
 Output () function takes id from user and show respective data of that id.
Max () gives the highest score of the Participant in the file.

QUESTION#6
Write a function in C++ to count and display the number of lines not starting with alphabet 'A' present in
a text file "STORY.TXT". Example:
1. If the file "STORY.TXT" contains the following lines,
2. The rose is red.
3. A girl is playing there.
4. There is a playground.
5. An aeroplane is in the sky.
6. Numbers are not allowed in the password.
7. The function should display the output as 3.