ASTU

CSEg 1104 Fundamentals of Programming

Lecture #11

2022

Computer Science & Engineering Program

The School of EE & Computing
Adama Science & Technology University
Outline ASTU

Files and Streams

• I/O file stream objects and functions
• Reading and writing character-based files
• Random file access
• File streams as function arguments
Case Study: Weather Forecast File Updates
• Reading Assignments
• Chapter 8 of the text book
• About ASCII Codes
– http://www.theasciicode.com.ar

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I/O File Stream Objects and Functions ASTU

• To store and retrieve data outside a

C++ program, two items are needed:
– A file
– A file stream object
• A file is a collection of data stored
together under a common name,
usually on disk, magnetic tape, USB
drive, or CD
• Each file has a unique file name,
referred to as file’s external name
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I/O File Stream Objects and Functions ASTU

• Choose filenames that indicate the

type of data in the file
• Two basic types of files exist
– Text files
• (also known as character-based files)
– Binary files

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File Stream Objects ASTU

• File stream: A one-way transmission path used

to connect a file stored on a physical device, such
as a disk or CD, to a program
• Each file stream has its own mode that
determines direction of data on transmission path
• That is, whether path moves data from a file to a
program or from a program to a file
• Input file stream: File stream that receives or
reads data from a file to a program
• Output file stream: File stream that sends or
writes data to a file

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 ASTU
File Stream Objects
• For each file your program uses,
regardless of file’s type, a distinct file
stream object must be created

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File Stream Functions ASTU

• Each file stream object has access to

functions defined for its class
• Methods perform following functions:
– Connecting stream object name to external
filename: opening a file
– Determining whether successful connection
has been made
– Closing connection: closing a file
– Getting next data item into program from
input stream
– Putting new data item from program onto
output stream
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File Stream Functions ASTU

• When existing file is connected to input stream,

file’s data is made available for input, starting
with first data item in file
– Called read mode or input mode
• File connected to output stream creates new file
and makes file available for output
– Called output mode
• When opening file for input or output, check that
connection has been established before
attempting to use file

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File Stream Functions ASTU

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Example 1 ASTU

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 ASTU

Desktop File Opened

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Example 2 ASTU

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Example 2: Testing ASTU

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Closing a File ASTU

• File is closed using close() method

• This method breaks connection between
file’s external name and file stream,
which can be used for another file
• Because all computers have limit on
maximum number of files that can be
open at one time, closing files no longer
needed makes good sense
• Any open files existing at end of normal
program execution are closed
automatically by OS
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Reading and Writing Character-Based Files ASTU

• Reading or writing character-based

files involves almost identical
operations for reading input from
keyboard and writing data to screen
– For writing to a file, cout object is
replaced by ofstream object name
declared in program
– Reading data from text file is almost
identical to reading data from standard
keyboard, except cin object is replaced
by ifstream object declared in program
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Example 3 ASTU

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Reading from a Text File ASTU

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Example 4 ASTU

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Standard Device Files ASTU

• Logical file object: Stream that connects

a file of logically related data to a program
• Physical file object: Stream that
connects to hardware device such as
keyboard, screen, or printer
• Actual physical device assigned to your
program for data entry is formally called
standard input file
– cin method calls are routed to this standard
input file
– cout method calls are written to a device that
has been assigned as standard output file
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Random File Access ASTU

• File access: Refers to process of

retrieving data from a file
• Two types of file access
– Sequential file access
– Random file access
• File organization: Refers to the way
data is stored in a file
• The files you have used and will
continue to use have a sequential
organization, meaning characters in file
are stored in a sequential manner
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Random File Access ASTU

• Each open file has been read in a

sequential manner, meaning
characters are accessed one after
another, which is called sequential
access
– Although characters are stored
sequentially, they don’t have to be
accessed in same way

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Random File Access ASTU

• In random access, any character in

opened file can be read without
having to read all characters stored
ahead of it first
– To provide random access, each
ifstream object creates a file position
marker automatically
– This marker is a long integer
representing an offset from the
beginning of file

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Random File Access ASTU

• File Position Marker Functions

• seek() method allows programmer to

move to any position in file
• Character’s position is referred to as its
offset from the start of file
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Example 5: Using seekg() and tellg() ASTU

Suppose test.dat contains this text

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Example 5: Using seekg() and tellg() ASTU

-18 -17 -16 -15 -14 -13 -12 -11 -10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
EO
T h e g r a d e w a s 9 2 . 5 F

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File Streams as Function Arguments ASTU

• A file stream object can be used as a

function argument
• The function’s formal parameter
must be a reference to the
appropriate stream, either
ifstream& or ofstream&
– Examples: inOut(), getOpen()

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Example 7: File Streams as Function Arguments
ASTU

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Example 7: File Streams as Function Arguments
ASTU

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Case Study: Weather Forecast File Updates
ASTU

• After a data file has been created,

application programs are typically
written to read and update the file with
current data
• In this case study, a file is used as a
database storing the ten most recent
temperature forecasts of Addis Ababa
– Analyze the problem
– Develop a solution
– Code the solution
– Test and correct the program
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Case Study: Weather Forecast File Updates
ASTU

• Analyze the Problem

– Data Obtained from
http://www.timeanddate.com/weather/ethiopia/addis-ab
aba/ext
– A file containing the ten most recent forecasts is
Tempera-
created Day
ture
– File Name
Only Higher and Extension: weather.in
Temperatures Sat, 30 Apr 12 / 19 °C
Sun, 1 May 13 / 17 °C
Mon, 2 May 12 / 19 °C
Tue, 3 May 11 / 20 °C
Oldest
Wed, 4 May 10 / 21 °C
Thu, 5 May 11 / 21 °C
Fri, 6 May 10 / 20 °C
Sat, 7 May 12 / 23 °C
Sun, 8 May 12 / 23 °C
Mon, 9 May 11 / 23 °C
Tue, 10 May 11 / 22 °C
Wed, 11 May 11 / 23 °C
Recent Thu, 12 May 11 / 21 °C
Fri, 13 May 10 / 21 °C
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Sat, 14 May 11 / 22 °C
Case Study: Weather Forecast File Updates
ASTU

• Analyze the Problem

– The input data for this problem consists of
• a file of 10 daily weather forecasts
– Each forecast contains
» a day (Mon-Sun), date (1-31), month(Jan-Dec),
temperature(0-35)
• a user-input value of the most recent weather
forecast. It contains
» a day (Mon-Sun), date (1-31), month(Jan-Dec),
temperature(0-35)
– There are two required outputs:
• A file of the 10 most recent daily forecasts
values
• The average of the data in the updated file
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Case Study: Weather Forecast File Updates
ASTU

• Develop a Solution

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Case Study: Weather Forecast File Updates
ASTU

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Case Study: Weather Forecast File Updates
ASTU

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Case Study: Weather Forecast File Updates
ASTU

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Case Study: Weather Forecast File Updates
ASTU

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Case Study: Weather Forecast File Updates
ASTU

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Testing the Program ASTU

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 Testing the Program ASTU

weather.in weather.out

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

S a t 3 0 A p r 1 9 ° C LF LF

18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35

S u n 1 M a y 1 7 ° C LF LF

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Looking ASCII Codes Using get Function ASTU

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