0% found this document useful (0 votes)
69 views13 pages

Advance C Project Chapter 2 (Introduction To File Handling in C-Part 1)

The document discusses file handling basics in C programming. It covers what a file is, why file handling is needed, how C handles files using functions like fopen(), fclose(), fgetc(), etc. It also explains the steps to process a file in C - creating a FILE stream pointer, opening the file using fopen(), reading/writing data, and closing the file with fclose(). Modes like "r", "w", "a" are used with fopen() to open files for reading, writing or appending.

Uploaded by

THULASI
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
0% found this document useful (0 votes)
69 views13 pages

Advance C Project Chapter 2 (Introduction To File Handling in C-Part 1)

The document discusses file handling basics in C programming. It covers what a file is, why file handling is needed, how C handles files using functions like fopen(), fclose(), fgetc(), etc. It also explains the steps to process a file in C - creating a FILE stream pointer, opening the file using fopen(), reading/writing data, and closing the file with fclose(). Modes like "r", "w", "a" are used with fopen() to open files for reading, writing or appending.

Uploaded by

THULASI
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 13

C PROJECT BATCH

CHAPTER 2
FILE HANDLING BASICS
Topics Covered
• What Is File Handling?
• Why To Use File Handling?
• How C Handles Files ?
• Steps Required In File Handling
• File Opening Modes
What is a File?
• A file is a collection on information, usually
stored on a computer’s disk. Information can
be saved to files and then later reused.

3
Why We Need File Handling ?
• Files are places where data can be stored
permanently.
• Some programs expect the same set of data to be fed
as input every time it is run.
– Cumbersome.
– Better if the data are kept in a file, and the program
reads from the file.
• Programs generating large volumes of output.
– Difficult to view on the screen.
– Better to store them in a file for later viewing/
processing
How C Handles Files ?
• C uses a structure called FILE (defined in stdio.h) to store the
attributes of a file.

• C provides a number of functions that helps to perform basic file


operations.

• Following are these functions:


– fopen() create a new file or open a existing file
– fclose() closes a file
– fgetc() reads a character from a file
– fputc() writes a character to a file
– rewind() set the position to the beginning point
– fscanf() reads a set of data from a file
– fprintf() writes a set of data to a file
– fseek() set the position to desire point
– ftell() gives current position in the file

5
Steps in Processing a File
1. Create the stream via a pointer variable using the
FILE structure:
FILE* fp;

2. Open the file, associating the stream name with


the file name.

3. Read or write the data.

4. Close the file.


File Open
• The file open function (fopen) serves two
purposes:
– It makes the connection between the physical file
and the stream.
– It creates “a program file structure to store the
information” C needs to process the file.
• Syntax:
fopen(“filename”, “mode”);
More On fopen
• The file mode tells C how the program will use the
file.
• The filename indicates the system name and location
for the file.
• We assign the return value of fopen to our pointer
variable:
fp = fopen(“data.txt”, “w”);
fp = fopen(“D:\\data.txt”, “w”);
More On fopen
File Open Modes
More on File Open Modes
Some More Modes

• r+ - open for reading and writing, start at beginning

• w+ - open for reading and writing (overwrite file)

• a+ - open for reading and writing (append if file


exists)
Closing a File
• When we finish with a mode, we need to close the
file before ending the program or beginning another
mode with that same file.

• To close a file, we use fclose and the pointer


variable:
fclose(fp);

You might also like