Pointers and Modular

Programming

Mirza Mohammad Lutfe Elahi

CSE 115 Programming Language I ECE@NSU
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Outline
• Pointer Variables
• Address Operator and Indirect Reference
• Functions with Output Parameters
• Multiple Calls to a Function
• Scope of Names
• File Input and Output
• Common Programming Errors

CSE 115 Programming Language I ECE@NSU

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Address Operator
• How to initialize a pointer variable?
• We can use the address operator &
• Example:
int m = 25;
int *itemp; /* pointer variable */
itemp = &m; /* Store address of m in pointer
itemp */

CSE 115 Programming Language I ECE@NSU

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Indirect Reference (De-Reference)

We can access and modify a variable:
1. Either directly using the variable name
2. Or indirectly, using a pointer to the variable
• Example:
int m = 25;
int *itemp; /* pointer variable */
itemp = &m; /* Store address of m in pointer
itemp */
*itemp = 35; /* m = 35 */
printf(“%d”, *itemp);
CSE 115 Programming Language I ECE@NSU
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Triple Use of * (Asterisk)

1. As a multiplication operator:
z = x * y ; /* z = x times y */
2. To declare pointer variables:
char ch; /* ch is a character */
char *p; /* p is pointer to char */
3. As an indirection operator:
p = &ch; /* p = address of ch */
*p = 'A'; /* ch = 'A' */
*p = *p + 1; /* ch = 'A' + 1 = 'B' */
CSE 115 Programming Language I ECE@NSU
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&p:2293312 &d:2293320
Example p=2293320 d = 13.5
#include <stdio.h>
int main(void) {
double d = 13.5;
double *p; /* p is a pointer to double */
p = &d; /* p = address of d */
printf("Value of d = %.2f\n", d);
printf("Value of &d = %d\n", &d);
printf("Value of p = %d\n", p);
printf("Value of *p = %.2f\n", *p);
printf("Value of &p = %d\n", &p);
*p = -5.3; /* d = -5.3 */
printf("Value of d = %.2f\n", d);
return 0;
}
CSE 115 Programming Language I ECE@NSU
 Pointer &p:2293312 &d:2293320
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p=2293320 d = 13.5
Summary
• Using a pointer variable p, one can access:
1. Its direct value: the value of pointer variable p
– In the example, the value of p is 2293320
– It is the address of variable d (&d is 2293320)

2. Its indirect value: using the indirection operator *

– In the example, *p is the value of d, which is 13.5

3. Its address value: using the address operator &

– In the example, &p is 2293312

CSE 115 Programming Language I ECE@NSU

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Function with Output Parameter

• So far, we know how to:
– Pass input parameters to a function
– Use the return statement to return one function result
• Functions can also have output parameters
– To return multiple results from a function
• Output parameters are pointer variables
– The caller passes the addresses of variables in memory
– The function uses indirect reference to modify variables in
the calling function (for output results)

CSE 115 Programming Language I ECE@NSU

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Example: Function separate

 Writea function that separates a number into a sign, a
whole number magnitude, and a fractional part.

void separate /* function separate */

(double num, /* input number */
char *signp, /* sign pointer */
int *wholep, /* whole number pointer */
double *fracp); /* fraction pointer */
CSE 115 Programming Language I ECE@NSU
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CSE 115 Programming Language I ECE@NSU

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CSE 115 Programming Language I ECE@NSU

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Parameter Passing for Function

separate

CSE 115 Programming Language I ECE@NSU

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Sort 3 Numbers

CSE 115 Programming Language I ECE@NSU

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CSE 115 Programming Language I ECE@NSU

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Tracing Program: Sort 3 Numbers

Statement num1 num2 num3 Effect

scanf(. . .); 7.5 9.6 5.5 Input Data

order(&num1, &num2); 7.5 9.6 5.5 No change

order(&num1, &num3); 5.5 9.6 7.5 swap num1, num3

order(&num2, &num3); 5.5 7.5 9.6 swap num2, num3

printf(. . .); 5.50 7.50 9.60

CSE 115 Programming Language I ECE@NSU

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Trace: order($num1, &num3)

Data area after: temp = *smp;

CSE 115 Programming Language I ECE@NSU
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Scope of a Name
• Region of program where a name is visible
• Region of program where a name can be referenced
• Scope of: #define NAME value
– From the definition line until the end of file
– Visible to all functions that appear after #define
• Scope of a function prototype
– Visible to all functions defined after the prototype
• Scope of a parameter and a local variable
– Visible only inside the function where it is defined
– Same name can be re-declared in different functions
CSE 115 Programming Language I ECE@NSU
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MAX and LIMIT are visible to all functions

prototypes are typically

visible to all functions

function one is not visible to fun_two: has parameter one

localvar is visible inside main only

anarg, second, and onelocal are

visible inside function one only

one, anarg, and localvar are

visible inside fun_two only

CSE 115 Programming Language I ECE@NSU

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Why Data Files?

• So far, all our examples obtained their input from the
keyboard and displayed their output on the screen
• However, the input data can be large that it will be
inconvenient to enter the input from the keyboard
– Example: processing large number of employees data
• Similarly, there are applications where the output will
be more useful if it is stored in a file
• The good news is that C allows the programmer to use
data files, both for input and output

CSE 115 Programming Language I ECE@NSU

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Using Data Files

• The process of using data files for input/output
involves four steps as follows:
1. Declare pointer variables of type FILE *

2. Open the files for reading/writing using fopen function

3. Read/write the files using fscanf and fprintf

4. Close the files after processing the data using fclose

• In what follows, we explain each of these steps

CSE 115 Programming Language I ECE@NSU

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Declaring FILE Pointer Variables

• Declare pointer variables to files as follows:
FILE *inp; /* pointer to input file */

FILE *outp; /* pointer to output file */

• Note that the type FILE is in upper case

– The type FILE stores information about an open file

• Also note the use of * before a pointer variable

– inp and outp are pointer variables
– Recall that pointer variables store memory addresses
CSE 115 Programming Language I ECE@NSU
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Opening Data Files for I/O

• The second step is to open a file for reading or writing
• Suppose our input data exists in file: "data.txt"
• To open a file for reading, write the following:
inp = fopen("data.txt", "r");
• The "r" indicates the purpose of reading from a file
• Suppose we want to output data to: "results.txt"
• To open a file for writing, write the following:
outp = fopen("results.txt", "w");
• The "w" indicates the purpose of writing to a file
CSE 115 Programming Language I ECE@NSU
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Handling File not Found Error

• inp = fopen("data.txt", "r");
• If the above fopen operation succeeds:
– It returns the address of the open FILE in inp
– The inp pointer can be used in all file read operations
• If the above fopen operation fails:
– For example, if the file data.txt is not found on disk
– It returns the NULL pointer value and assign it to inp
• Check the pointer inp immediately after fopen
if (inp == NULL)
printf("Cannot open file: data.txt\n");

CSE 115 Programming Language I ECE@NSU

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Creating a File for Writing

• outp = fopen("results.txt", "w");
• If the above fopen operation succeeds:
– It returns the address of the open FILE in outp
– The outp pointer can be used in all file write operations
• If file results.txt does not exist on the disk
– The OS typically creates a new file results.txt on disk
• If file results.txt already exists on the disk
– The OS typically clears its content to make it a new file
• If fopen fails to create a new file for writing, it
returns the NULL pointer in outp
CSE 115 Programming Language I ECE@NSU
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Input from & Output to Data Files

• The third step is to scan data from an input file and to
print results into an output file
• To input a double value from file data.txt, use:
fscanf(inp, "%lf", &data);
• The fscanf function works the same way as scanf
– Except that its first argument is an input FILE pointer
• To output a double value to results.txt, use:
fprintf(outp, "%f", data);
• Again, fprintf works similar to printf
– Except that its first argument is an output FILE pointer
CSE 115 Programming Language I ECE@NSU
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Closing Input and Output Files

• The final step in using data files is to close the files
after you finish using them
• The fclose function is used to close both input and
output files as shown below:
fclose(inp);
fclose(outp);
• Warning: Do not forget to close files, especially
output files. This is necessary if you want to re-open a
file for reading after writing data to it. The OS might
delay writing data to a file until closed.
CSE 115 Programming Language I ECE@NSU
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CSE 115 Programming Language I ECE@NSU

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Sample Run
• File: indata.txt
344 55 6.3556 9.4
43.123 47.596
• File: outdata.txt
344.00
55.00
6.36
9.40
43.12
47.60

CSE 115 Programming Language I ECE@NSU

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End-of-File Controlled Loop

• When reading input from a data file, the program does
not know how many data items to read
• Example: finding class average from student grades
• The grades are read from an input file one at a time in
a loop, until the end of file is reached
• The question here is how to detect the end of file?
• The good news is that fscanf returns a special value,
named EOF, when it encounters End-Of-File
• We can take advantage of this by using EOF as a
condition to control the termination of a loop
CSE 115 Programming Language I ECE@NSU
 /* This program computes the average score of a class 30

The scores are read from an input file, scores.txt */

#include <stdio.h>
int main (void) {
FILE *infile;
double score, sum=0, average;
int count=0, status;
infile = fopen("scores.txt", "r");
status = fscanf(infile, "%lf", &score);
while (status != EOF) {
printf("%5.1f\n", score);
sum += score;
count++;
status = fscanf(infile, "%lf", &score);
}
average = sum / count;
printf("\nSum of scores is %.1f\n", sum);
printf("Average score is %.2f\n", average);
fclose(infile);
return 0;
}

CSE 115 Programming Language I ECE@NSU

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Common Programming Errors

• Be careful when using pointer variables
– A pointer should be initialized to a valid address before use
– De-referencing an invalid/NULL pointer is a runtime error
• Calling functions with output parameters
– Remember that output parameters are pointers
– Pass the address of a variable to a pointer parameter
• Do not reference names outside their scope
• Create a file before reading it in a program
– Remember that fopen prepares a file for input/output
– The result of fopen should not be a NULL pointer
– Check the status of fscanf to ensure correct input
– Remember to use fclose to close a file, when done
CSE 115 Programming Language I ECE@NSU