Introduction to
Programming (C/C++)
Chapter 9: File Handling
Nguyen Le Hoang Dung
nlhdung@fit.hcmus.edu.vn
Objectives
In this chapter, you will learn:
• Files and Streams
• Creating a sequential access file
• Reading data from a sequential access file
• Updating sequential access files
Introduction to Programming – Nguyen Le Hoang Dung Updated on 11/25/19 2
Objectives (continued)
In this chapter, you will:
• Random Access Files
• Creating a random access file
• Writing data randomly to a random access file
• Reading data sequentially from a random
access file
Introduction to Programming – Nguyen Le Hoang Dung Updated on 11/25/19 3
Introduction
• Data files
− Can be created, updated, and processed by C
programs
− Are used for permanent storage of large
amounts of data
• Storage of data in variables and arrays is only
temporary
Introduction to Programming – Nguyen Le Hoang Dung Updated on 11/25/19 4
The Data Hierarchy
Hierarchy of data Example
001 - Nguyen Van A – 227 Nguyen Van Cu
Files
002 – Dam Thi B – 223B Nguyen Van Cu
Records 001 - Nguyen Van A – 227 Nguyen Van Cu
Fields Nguyen Van A
Characters (byte) 1001110 (letter N in ASCII)
Bit 1 Or 0
Introduction to Programming – Nguyen Le Hoang Dung Updated on 11/25/19 5
Files and Streams
• C views each file as a sequence of bytes
− File ends with the end-of-file marker
• Or, file ends at a specified byte
• Stream created when a file is opened
− Provide communication channel between files and
programs
− Opening a file returns a pointer to a FILE
structure
• Example file pointers:
• stdin - standard input (keyboard)
• stdout - standard output (screen)
• stderr - standard error (screen)
Introduction to Programming – Nguyen Le Hoang Dung Updated on 11/25/19 6
Files and Streams (continued)
• Read/Write functions in standard library
− fgetc
• Reads one character from a file
• Takes a FILE pointer as an argument
• fgetc( stdin ) equivalent to getchar()
− fputc
• Writes one character to a file
• Takes a FILE pointer and a character to write
as an argument
• fputc( 'a', stdout ) equivalent to
putchar( 'a' )
Introduction to Programming – Nguyen Le Hoang Dung Updated on 11/25/19 7
Files and Streams (continued)
• Read/Write functions in standard library
− fgets
• Reads a line from a file
− fputs
• Writes a line to a file
− fscanf / fprintf
• File processing equivalents of scanf
and printf
Introduction to Programming – Nguyen Le Hoang Dung Updated on 11/25/19 8
Creating a Sequential Access File
• Creating a File
− FILE *myPtr;
• Creates a FILE pointer called myPtr
− myPtr = fopen("myFile.dat",
openmode);
• Function fopen returns a FILE pointer
to file specified
• Takes two arguments – file to open and
file open mode
• If open fails, NULL returned
Introduction to Programming – Nguyen Le Hoang Dung Updated on 11/25/19 9
Creating a Sequential Access File
(continued)
− feof( FILE pointer )
• Returns true if end-of-file indicator (no
more data to process) is set for the
specified file
− fclose( FILE pointer )/fcloseall()
• Closes specified file
• Performed automatically when program
ends
• Good practice to close files explicitly
Introduction to Programming – Nguyen Le Hoang Dung Updated on 11/25/19 10
Creating a Sequential Access File
(continued)
Mode Description
r Open a file for reading.
Create a file for writing. If the file already
w
exists, discard the current contents.
Append; open or create a file for writing at end
a
of file.
r+ Open a file for update (reading and writing).
Create a file for update. If the file already
w+
exists, discard the current contents.
Append; open or create a file for update;
a+
writing is done at the end of the file.
Table of file open modes
Introduction to Programming – Nguyen Le Hoang Dung Updated on 11/25/19 11
Reading Data from a Sequential
Access File
• Reading a sequential access file
− Create a FILE pointer, link it to the file to
read
myPtr = fopen( "myFile.dat", "r" );
− Use fscanf to read from the file
• Like scanf, except first argument is a
FILE pointer
fscanf(myPtr, "%d%s%f", &myInt,
&myString, &myFloat);
− Data read from beginning to end
Introduction to Programming – Nguyen Le Hoang Dung Updated on 11/25/19 12
Reading Data from a Sequential
Access File (continued)
• More convenient methods of reading a
string with fscanf
− %[characters]: read until all characters are not
found
− %[^characters]: read until any characters is
found.
• Example:
<ID>-<Name>(<Gender>)tab<Birthday>tab<Grade>
09121234-N. T. Dep(Female) 19/09/99 8.5
Introduction to Programming – Nguyen Le Hoang Dung Updated on 11/25/19 13
Reading Data from a Sequential
Access File (continued)
struct Student {
char STUID[8]; // 19121234
char FullName[30];// N. T. Dep
char Gender[6]; // Female
char Birthday[9]; // 19/09/99
float Grade; // 8.5
};//09121234-N. T. Dep(Female) 19/09/99 8.5
void main() {
Student stu;
FILE *fp = fopen(“students.txt”, “rt”);
if (fp != NULL) {
fscanf(fp, “%[^-]-%[^(](%[^)])\t%[^\t]\t%f”,
&stu.STUID, &stu.FullName, &stu.Gender,
&stu.Birthday, &stu.Grade);
fclose(fp);
}
}Introduction to Programming – Nguyen Le Hoang Dung Updated on 11/25/19 14
Demo
• ch10-File01.cpp
• ch10-File02.cpp
• ch10-File03.cpp
Introduction to Programming – Nguyen Le Hoang Dung Updated on 11/25/19 15
Random Access Files
• Access individual records without searching
through other records
• Instant access to records in a file
• Data can be inserted without destroying other
data
• Data previously stored can be updated or
deleted without overwriting
• Implemented using fixed length records
Introduction to Programming – Nguyen Le Hoang Dung Updated on 11/25/19 16
Random Access Files (continued)
0 100 200 300 400 500
}byte offsets
}
}
}
}
}
}
100 100 100 100 100 100
bytes bytes bytes bytes bytes bytes
Introduction to Programming – Nguyen Le Hoang Dung Updated on 11/25/19 17
Creating a Random Access File
• Data in random access files
− Unformatted (stored as "raw bytes")
− All data of the same type (ints, for
example) uses the same amount of
memory
− All records of the same type have a fixed
length
− Data not human readable
Introduction to Programming – Nguyen Le Hoang Dung Updated on 11/25/19 18
Creating a Random Access File
(continued)
• Unformatted I/O functions
− fwrite
• Transfer bytes from a location in
memory to a file
− fread
• Transfer bytes from a file to a location in
memory
Introduction to Programming – Nguyen Le Hoang Dung Updated on 11/25/19 19
Creating a Random Access File
(continued)
• Example:
fwrite(&number, sizeof(int), 1,
myPtr);
− &number – Location to transfer bytes from
− sizeof( int ) – Number of bytes to transfer
− 1 – For arrays, number of elements to transfer
− In this case, "one element" of an array is being
transferred
− myPtr – File to transfer to or from
Introduction to Programming – Nguyen Le Hoang Dung Updated on 11/25/19 20
Creating a Random Access File
(continued)
• Writing structs
fwrite(&myObject, sizeof(myStruct), 1, myPtr );
− sizeof – returns size in bytes of object in
parentheses
• To write several array elements
− Pointer to array as first argument
− Number of elements to write as third argument
Introduction to Programming – Nguyen Le Hoang Dung Updated on 11/25/19 21
Reading Data Sequentially from a
Random Access File
• fread: reads a specified number of bytes
from a file into memory
fread( &client, sizeof (struct
clientData), 1, myPtr );
− Can read several fixed-size array elements
• Provide pointer to array
• Indicate number of elements to read
− To read multiple elements, specify in third
argument
Introduction to Programming – Nguyen Le Hoang Dung Updated on 11/25/19 22
Writing Data Randomly
(continued)
• fseek: sets file position pointer to a
specific position
fseek(pointer, offset, symbolic_constant);
− pointer – pointer to file
− offset – file position pointer (0 is first location)
− symbolic_constant – specifies where in file we
are reading from
• SEEK_SET – seek starts at beginning of file
• SEEK_CUR – seek starts at current location in file
• SEEK_END – seek starts at end of file
Introduction to Programming – Nguyen Le Hoang Dung Updated on 11/25/19 23
Writing Data Randomly
(continued)
• rewind: sets the file position to the
beginning
rewind(pointer);
− pointer – pointer to file
• ftell: returns the current file position of the
given stream.
ftell(pointer);
− pointer – pointer to file
Introduction to Programming – Nguyen Le Hoang Dung Updated on 11/25/19 24
Writing Data Randomly
(continued)
FILE* fp = fopen(“fileName.txt”, “rb”);
fseek(fp, 0L, SEEK_END);
long size = ftell(fp);
printf(“The size of file: %ld\n”, size);
Introduction to Programming – Nguyen Le Hoang Dung Updated on 11/25/19 25
File Management Functions
• remove: remove a file pointed to
by filename
int remove(const char *filename);
− filename – the file to delete
− The remove function returns zero is
successful, otherwise nonzero
if (remove(“c:\\vc.txt”) == 0)
printf(“The file vc.txt was removed!”);
else
printf(“Cannot remove the file vc.txt!”);
Introduction to Programming – Nguyen Le Hoang Dung Updated on 11/25/19 26
File Management Functions (cont)
• rename: changes the name of a file. You
must close the file before renaming, as a file
can not be renamed if it is open
int rename(const char *old, const
char *new);
− old – the old file name that will be changed
− New – the new file name to use
− This function returns zero is successful,
otherwise nonzero
Introduction to Programming – Nguyen Le Hoang Dung Updated on 11/25/19 27
File Management Functions (cont)
if (rename(“c:\\a.txt”, “c:\\BT\b.cpp”) == 0)
printf(“Rename successfully J ”);
else
printf(“Cannot rename this file L ”);
Introduction to Programming – Nguyen Le Hoang Dung Updated on 11/25/19 28
Demo
• ch10-File04.cpp (Creating a Random Access
File)
• ch10-File05.cpp (Writing Data Randomly)
• ch10-File06.cpp (Reading Data)
Introduction to Programming – Nguyen Le Hoang Dung Updated on 11/25/19 29
Summary
• The hierarchy of data
• Creating a Sequential Access File
• Reading Data from a Sequential Access File
• Creating a Random Access File
• Writing Data Randomly to a Random Access
File
• Reading Data Sequentially from a Random
Access File
Introduction to Programming – Nguyen Le Hoang Dung Updated on 11/25/19 30
Reading
File handling in C++
• Chapter 16 - Input/Output Streams (C++
Programming: An Object-Oriented Approach)
Introduction to Programming – Nguyen Le Hoang Dung Updated on 11/25/19 31
Assignment
Is this program wrong?
void main()
{
FILE *fp;
int c;
if ((fp = fopen("abc.xyz", "rb")) == NULL)
printf("Cannot open file abc.xyz\n");
else
{
while ((c = fgetc(fp)) != EOF)
fprintf(stdout, "%c", c);
fclose(fp);
}
}
Introduction to Programming – Nguyen Le Hoang Dung Updated on 11/25/19 32
Assignment
Write a program that uses functions to perform
the following operations:
• Read 3 integers from the keyboard and write
that numbers to a file
• Read 3 integers from the “input.txt” file, solve
quadratic equation (ax2+ bx + c = 0) and write
the results to the “output.txt” file
Introduction to Programming – Nguyen Le Hoang Dung Updated on 11/25/19 33
Assignment
Write a program that uses functions to perform
the following operations:
• Read n integers from the “input.txt” file, sort
those numbers in ascending order and write
the results to the “output.txt” file
4 è 4
2 5 1 4 è 1 2 4 5
Introduction to Programming – Nguyen Le Hoang Dung Updated on 11/25/19 34
Assignment
Write a program to do the following functions:
• Write a list of Point to “points.data” file
• Read “points.data” file and print out the list of
points
• Find two most distant points and write them to
“ouput.dat”
Introduction to Programming – Nguyen Le Hoang Dung Updated on 11/25/19 35
References
• Behrouz A. Forouzan, Richard Gilberg, C++
Programming: An Object-Oriented Approach, 1st Edition,
Hill Education, 2019.
• Trần Đan Thư, Nguyễn Thanh Phương, Đinh Bá Tiến,
Trần Minh Triết, Nhập môn lập trình, NXB Khoa Học Kỹ
thuật, 2011.
• Đặng Bình Phương, Bài giảng nhập môn lập trình, 2009
Introduction to Programming – Nguyen Le Hoang Dung Updated on 11/25/19 36
