C Files
File handling in C is a basic programming concept that allows you to read and write system files. It includes opening the file, reading data from it, writing data to it, and closing it once done.
Types of Files in C
There are two types of files:
Text Files
A text file has only text data such as alphabets, numbers, and special characters. A.txt file is an example of a text file.
Binary Files
A binary file is just a bunch of bytes. A good example of a binary file is a .bin file.
C File Operations
Various operations can be done on a file. These include:
- Creating of a new file
- Opening an existing file
- Reading from file
- Writing to a file
- Closing a file
Creating a File
To create a file in C, use the fopen() function with the proper mode.
Syntax
FILE *fptr;
fptr = fopen("filename.txt", "w");
Open a File
To read a file, use the fopen() function.
Syntax
FILE* fopen("fileopen","mode");
Reading From a File
Employ the operations such as fscanf(), fgets() to fetch information from the file.
Syntax
FILE *fptr;
fptr = fopen("filename.txt", "r");
Write to a File
Utilize the functions such as fprintf(), fputs() to print data into the file.
Syntax
FILE *fptr;
fptr = fopen("filename.txt", "w");
fprintf(fptr, "Hello C");
fclose(fptr);
Closing a File
Once we have done reading from the file, we must close it. This is achieved through the use of the fclose() function.
Syntax
fclose(fp);
Example:
#include
<stdio.h>
int main()
{
int i
= 0;
do
{
printf("%d", i);
i++;
}
while
(i < 4);
return
0;
}
Output:
0 1 2 3