Subject : COMP6047

ALGORITHM AND PROGRAMMING

Year : 2019

File Processing
 Learning Outcomes
At the end of this session, student will be able to:
• Demonstrate ability to apply file read, write data to a text file or
binary (LO2, LO3 & LO4)

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 Sub Topics
File Processing:
– Files and Streams
– File Definition
– Open File
– Close File
– Input File
– Output File
– Program Examples
– Exercise

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 Files and Streams
Streams Definition
• To keep key in data from keyboard need to be saved at
secondary storage device as a data file.
• Stream is a sequence of character. All input and output
data is a stream. C sees file as a stream.

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 Files and Streams
• When a C program run, there are three (3) standard streams
activated:
1. Standard Input Stream
Controlling input stream from keyboard
2. Standard Output Stream
Controlling output stream to the monitor
3. Standard Error Stream
Controlling the error messaging

• Each stream associated with a file.

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 Files and Streams
• File Definition
– File is a collection of record
– Record is a collection of field
– Field is a block of byte
– Byte is collection of bit

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 Files and Streams
• Opening a file ordering a pointer returned to the initiator. The
Pointer is pointing to a data structure with FILE type defined in
stdio.h

Standard input stream stdin

Standard output stream stdout
Standard error stream stderr

Stream File pointer

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 File Definition
typedef struct {
int level; // fill/empty level of
buffer
unsigned flags; // File status flags
char fd; // File descriptor
unsigned char hold; // Unget char if no buffer
int bsize; // Buffer size
unsigned char *buffer; // Data transfer buffer
unsigned char *curp; // Current active pointer
unsigned istemp; // Temporary file indicator
short token; //Used for validity checking
} FILE;

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 File Definition
• TEXT FILE saved in a text format or ASCII File
– Storage size depends on its data: 10000 needs 5 byte
– Can be open using standard text editor application
– or c:>TYPE file_name

• BINARY FILE storing numerical data in affixed format in

line with micro-processor format definition (example:
format sign-magnitude 2’s complement).

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 Buffer Area
• Buffer area is part of the memory used as a temporary space
before data moved to a file.

• Syntax:
FILE *fp;
Where fp is a file pointer pointing to the start of the buffer area.

• Also known as stream pointer.

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 Open File
• Opening a File using fopen():
FILE *fopen (const char *filename, const char
*mode );

• fopen() defined at <stdio.h>

• fopen() return a pointer to the start of a buffer area. Null will

be returned if file unable to open.

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 Open File
• Possible mode value :
Mode Description
“r” opening a file to be read.
“w” creating a file to be written.
“a” opening a File for data append.
“r+” opening a File for read/write.
“w+” creating file for read/write.
“a+” opening a File for read/append
“rb” opening a File (binary) to be read.
“wb” creating a file (binary) for write operation.

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 Close File
• Closing a File using fclose():

int fclose (FILE *stream);

• fclose() defined at <stdio.h>

• fclose() will return 0 if successful, and EOF if error
• EOF (End Of File) equals to -1
• fclose() will release the buffer area and immediately send
the remaining data to file.

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 Close File
• Closing a File using fcloseall():

int fcloseall (void);

 Close all active stream except: stdin, stdout,

stdprn, stderr, and stdaux.
 Will return the number of stream closed if
successful, and return EOF instead.
 Header file <stdio.h>

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 Input & Output File
• fgetc (INPUT)
– Read one character from a file
– fgetc(stdin) equivalent with getchar()
– Syntax : int fgetc( FILE *stream );
– Return the character when successful, and EOF while error

• fputc (OUTPUT)
– Writing one character to a file
– fputc('a', stdout) similar with putchar( 'a' )
– Syntax: int fputc( int c, FILE *stream );
– Return a character when successful, and EOF if error

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 Input & Output File
• fgets (INPUT)
– Syntax: char *fgets( char *string, int n, FILE *stream );
– Read one line from a file that ended with new line, or at
maximum of n-1 number of character.
– Return a string if successful and NULL while error

• fputs (OUTPUT)
– Writing a line to a file
– Syntax: int fputs( const char *string, FILE *stream );
– Return non-negative value while successful and EOF if error.

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 Input & Output File
• fscanf (INPUT)
– Syntax:
int fscanf( FILE *stream, const char *format [,
argument ]... );
– Read data from file inline with the scanf formatting.
– Return the number of field read while successful, and EOF if error

• fprintf (OUTPUT)
– Syntax:
int fprintf( FILE *stream, const char *format [, argument ]...);
– Writing data to a file using the printf format.
– Return number of byte written if successful and negative value if
error.

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 Input & Output File
• fwrite
– syntax: size_t fwrite( const void *buffer, size_t size, size_t count,
FILE *stream );
– Writing a block of data in the buffer area to the file
– Return number of byte data written, and error otherwise.
• fread
– Syntax: size_t fread( void *buffer, size_t size, size_t count, FILE
*stream );
– Read a block size of data from a file
• feof
– Syntax : int feof( FILE *stream );
– Finding out if the pointer has reached end-of-file
– Return 0 if not end-of-file

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 Input & Output File
• Example using fwrite():

fwrite( &mhs, sizeof( mhs ), 1, fp );

– &mhs = data origin location

– sizeof(mhs) = return the size of mhs
– 1 => one time write sizeof(mhs)
– fp = file pointer

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 Program Examples
• Example
#include <stdio.h>
void main( void ) {
FILE *stream;
char *p, buffer[] = "This is the line of output\n";
int ch; ch = 0;
stream = stdout;
for( p = buffer; (ch != EOF) && (*p != '\0'); p++ )
ch = putc( *p, stream );
}
Output:
This is the line of output
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 Program Examples
• Example reading file fgetc.c
#include <stdio.h>
int main(void)
{
char ch; FILE *fp;
fp=fopen("fgetc.c","r");
if(fp==NULL){
printf("File fgetc.c can’t be opened\n"); exit(1);
}
while(!feof(fp)){
ch=fgetc(fp); printf("%c",ch);
}
fclose(fp);
return 0;
} COMP6047 - Algorithm and Programming 21
 Program Examples
• Example writing string to file test.txt using fputc
#include <stdio.h>
int main(void)
{
FILE *fp; int i;
char ss[80]=“This statement is saved to test.txt using fputc";
fp=fopen("test.txt","w");
if(fp==NULL){
printf("File test.txt can’t be created\n"); exit(1);
}
for(i=0; i<strlen(ss); i++) fputc(ss[i], fp);
fclose(fp);
return 0;
}
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 Program Examples
• Example reading file fgets.c using fgets
#include <stdio.h>
int main(void)
{
FILE *fp;
char ss[80];
fp=fopen("fgets.c","r");
if(fp==NULL){
printf("File fgets.c can’t be opened\n"); exit(1);
}
while(fgets(ss, 80, fp)) printf("%s",ss);
fclose(fp);
return 0;
}
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 Program Examples
• Example writing a string to file test.txt using fputs
#include <stdio.h>
int main(void)
{
FILE *fp;
char ss[80]=“This statement’s saved to file test.txt using fputs";
fp=fopen("test.txt","w");
if(fp==NULL){
printf("File test.txt can’t be created\n");
exit(1);
}
fputs(ss, fp);
fclose(fp);
return 0;
} COMP6047 - Algorithm and Programming 24
 Program Examples
• Example writing data to file test.txt using fprintf
#include <stdio.h>
int main(void)
{
FILE *fp;
fp=fopen("test.txt","w");
if(fp==NULL){
printf("File test.txt can’t be created\n");
exit(1);
}
fprintf(fp,"%d %s %f\n",1,“Amir", 3.95);
fprintf(fp,"%d %s %f\n",2,“Tono", 3.15);
fclose(fp);
return 0;
} COMP6047 - Algorithm and Programming 25
 Program Examples
• Example reading data from file test.txt using fscanf
#include <stdio.h>
int main(void)
{
FILE *fp; int no; char name[20]; float gpa;
fp=fopen("test.txt","r");
if(fp==NULL){
printf("File test.txt can’t be opened\n");
exit(1);
}
fscanf(fp,"%d %s %f",&no,name, &gpa);
printf("%d %s %f\n",no,name,gpa);
fscanf(fp,"%d %s %f",&no,name, &gpa);
printf("%d %s %f\n",no,name,gpa);
fclose(fp); return 0;
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}
 Program Examples
• Example writing data to binary file test.dat using fwrite

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void)
{
FILE *fp;
int Arr[]={1,2,3,4,5};
fp=fopen("test.dat","w");
if(fp==NULL){
printf("File test.dat can’t be created\n");
exit(1);
}
fwrite(Arr,sizeof(Arr),1,fp);
fclose(fp);
return 0;
}
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 Program Examples
• Example reading data from binary file test.dat using fread
#include <stdio.h>
int main(void)
{
FILE *fp; int i;
int Arr[5];
fp=fopen("test.dat","r");
if(fp==NULL){
printf("File test.dat can’t be opened\n");
exit(1);
}
fread(Arr,sizeof(Arr),1,fp);
for(i=0; i<5; i++) printf("%d ",Arr[i]);
fclose(fp);
return 0;
}

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 Exercise
1. A text file contain birth date of some employees with format dd/mm/yy:
• 01/06/50
• 03/06/51
• 10/02/54
• 08/01/48
• 26/08/51
• 27/04/54
• 21/09/51
• … and so on
Read the file using C and find out how many employees with age:
– above 51
– between 44 – 51
– between 36 – 43
– between 28 – 35
– below 28
(note : age = now – birth date)

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 Exercise
2. struct Mhs{
char name[20];
int nim;
float gpa;
};

Create a binary file using fwrite, to store 5 record of Mhs data

structure above. Name, nim and cummulative achievement (gpa)
is inputted from the keyboard.
File name = Mhs.dat

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 Exercise
3. Read file Mhs.dat from previous exercise using fread(), then
display it to the monitor using the following format:
Nim Name GPA
------ -------- ----

4. Open file Mhs.dat from prev exercise, then append 5 record of

student data using keyboard

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 Exercise
5. Describe with example function rewind() with the following syntax:
void rewind( FILE *stream );

6. Describe with example function fseek() with the following syntax :

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

7. Describe with example function ftell() with the following syntax:

long ftell( FILE *stream );

8. Describe how to find out the size of a file?

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 Exercise
9. Create a program to copy a file as in DOS command:
C>copy test.c try.c

10. Create a program to delete a file as in DOS command:

C> del test.c

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 Summary
• Stream is a sequence of character. All input and output data is
a stream. C sees file as a stream.
• File Definition
– File is a collection of record
– Record is a collection of field
– Field is a block of byte
– Byte is collection of bit

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 References
• Paul Deitel & Harvey Deitel. (2016). C how to program : with an
introduction to C++. 08. Pearson Education. Hoboken. ISBN:
9780133976892. Chapter 11
• Disk File Input and Output: Part I:
http://aelinik.free.fr/c/ch21.htm
• Disk File Input and Output: Part II:
http://aelinik.free.fr/c/ch22.htm
• File Handling in C Language:
http://www.mycplus.com/tutorials/c-programming-tutorials/file-h
andling/
• File:
http://www.cs.iupui.edu/~n305/spring11/book_slides/chtp6_11.
ppt
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 END

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