BASIC PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE

LESSON 13

File Handling
CONTENT
1. File I/O Concepts
2. Working with Streams
• Text Stream
• Binary Stream

3. I/O Functions:
• open(), close()
• fread(), fwrite(), fseek()
• fscanf(), fprintf()

4. Summary
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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.

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File Input / Output
• A file is a container in computer storage devices used for storing data.
• All I/O operations in C are carried out using functions from the standard
library.
• This approach makes the C file system very powerful and flexible.
• I/O in C is unique because data may be transferred in its internal binary
representation or in a human-readable text format.

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File Input / Output

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Streams
• The C file system works with a wide variety of devices including printers,
disk drives, tape drives and terminals.
• Though all these devices are very different from each other, the buffered
file system transforms each device into a logical device called a stream.
• Since all streams act similarly, it is easy to handle the different devices.
• There are two types of streams
• Text stream
• Binary stream

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Streams

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Text Streams
• A text stream is a sequence of characters that can be organized into
lines terminated by a new line character.
• In a text stream, certain character translations may occur as required by
the environment.
• Therefore, there may not be a one-to-one relationship between the
characters that are written (or read) and those in the external device.
• Also, because of possible translations, the number of characters written
(or read) may not be the same as those in the external device.

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Binary Streams
• A binary stream is a sequence of bytes with a one-to-one correspondence
to those in the external device, that is, there are no character translations.
• The number of bytes written (or read) is the same as the number on the
external device.
• Binary streams are a flat sequence of bytes, which do not have any flags
to indicate the end of file or end of record.
• The end of file is determined by the size of the file.

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Files
• A file can refer to anything from a disk file to a terminal or a printer.
• A file is associated with a stream by performing an open operation and
disassociated by a close operation.
• When a program terminates normally, all files are automatically closed.
• When a program crashes, the files remain open.
• File handling in C: Using standard I/O in C using fprintf(), fscanf(), fread(),
fwrite(), fseek().

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File Functions
Name Function
fopen() Opens a file
fclose() Closes a file
fputc() Writes a character to a file
fgetc() Reads a character from a file
fread() Reads from a file to a buffer
fwrite() Writes from a buffer to a file
fseek() Seeks a specific location in the file
fprintf() Operates like printf(), but on a file
fscanf() Operates like scanf(), but on a file
feof() Returns true if end-of-file is reached

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File Functions
Name Function
ferror() Returns true if an error has occurred
rewind() Resets the file position locator to the beginning of the file
remove() Erases a file
fflush() Writes data from internal buffers to a specified file

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File Pointer
• A file pointer is essential for reading or writing files.
• It is a pointer to a structure that contains the file name, current position of
the file, whether the file is being read or written, and whether any errors or
the end of the file have occurred.
• The definitions obtained from <stdio.h> include a structure declaration
called FILE.
• The only declaration needed for a file pointer is:
FILE *fp;

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Types of Files
• When dealing with files, there are two types of files you should know
about:
• Text files: Text files are the normal .txt files. You can easily create text files
using any simple text editors such as Notepad.
• 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).

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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. Reading from and writing information to a file
4. Closing a file

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Working with Text File
• Open File:
• Using fopen() function
• File Manipulation:
• Using fgetc(), fgets() functions read from file
• Using fputc(), fputs() functions write to file

• Close File:
• Using fclose() function

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Opening a Text File
• The fopen() function opens a stream for use and links a file with that
stream.
• The fopen() function returns a file pointer associated with the file.
• The prototype for fopen() function is:
FILE *fopen(const char *filename, const char *mode);

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Opening a Text File
Mode Meaning
r Open a text file for reading
w Create a text file for writing
a Append to a text file
r+ Open a text file for read/write
w+ Create a text file for read/write
a+f Append or create a text file for read/write

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Reading a Text File Example
• Using fgetc() function:

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Reading a Text File Example
• Using fgets() function:

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Working with Binary File
• Open File:
• Using fopen() function

• File Manipulation:
• Using fread() functions read from file
• Using fwrite() functions write to file

• Close File:
• Using fclose() function

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Opening a Binary File
• To open binary file, you also use fopen() function.
• The fopen() function returns a file pointer associated with the file.
• The prototype for fopen() function is:
FILE *fopen(const char *filename, const char *mode);

• Different from opening a text file is adding parameter “b” in opening mode.

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Opening a Binary File
Mode Meaning
rb Open a binary file for reading
wb Create a binary file for writing
ab Append to a binary file
r+b Open a binary file for read/write
w+b Create a binary file for read/write
a+b Append a binary file for read/write

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Working with Binary File Example

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Working with Binary File Example

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Working with Binary File Example

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Working with Binary File Example

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Working with Binary File Example

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Working with Binary File Example

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Working with Binary File Example

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feof() Function
• The function feof() returns true if the end of the file has been reached,
otherwise it returns false (0).
• This function is used while reading binary data.
• The prototype for feof() function is:
int feof(FILE *fp);

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Erasing File
• The remove() function erases a specified file.
• The remove() function in C can be used to delete a file. The function
returns 0 if files is deleted successfully, other returns a non-zero value.
• The prototype for remove() function is:
int remove (char *fileName);

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Getting Data Using fseek() Fuctions
• 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().
• Syntax:
fseek(FILE * stream, long int offset, int whence);
• Example:
// Moves the cursor to the end of the file
fseek(fptr, -sizeof(struct threeNum), SEEK_END);

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Flushing Streams

• The fflush() function flushes out the buffer depending upon the file type.
• A file opened for read will have its input buffer cleared, while a file opened
for write will have its output buffer written to the files.
• The prototype for fflush() function is:
int fflush(FILE *fp);
• The fflush() function, with a null, flushes all files opened for output.

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Current Active Pointer
• A pointer is maintained in the FILE structure to keep track of the position
where I/O operations take place.
• Whenever a character is read from or written to the stream, the current
active pointer (known as curp) is advanced.
• The current location of the current active pointer can be found with the
help of the ftell() function.
• The prototype for ftell() function is:
long int ftell(FILE *fp);

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fprintf() & fscanf() Function
• The buffered I/O system includes fprintf() and fscanf() functions that are
similar to printf() and scanf() except that they operate with files.
• The prototypes of are:
int fprintf(FILE * fp, const char *control_string,..);
int fscanf(FILE *fp, const char *control_string,...);
• The fprintf() and fscanf() though the easiest, are not always the most
efficient.
• Extra overhead is incurred with each call, since the data is written in
formatted ASCII data instead of binary format.
• If speed or file size is a concern, fread() and fwrite() are a better choice.
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Summary
• All I/O operations in C are carried out using functions from the standard
library.
• I/O in C is unique because data may be transferred in its internal binary
representation or in a human-readable text format.
• The C file system works with a wide variety of devices including printers,
disk drives, tape drives and terminals.
• There are two types of streams - the text and binary streams.
• A file can refer to anything from a disk file to a terminal or a printer.
• A file pointer is essential for reading or writing files.
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