C program to read a file and display its contents
C Programming Language File Input/Output (Article) File Input/Output (Program)
129
Required knowledge
Basic Input Output, Do while loop, While loop, Pointers, File Handling
In the previous post, I explained how to use FILE
pointer, fopen()
, fputs()
and fclose()
function to create and write data into file.
In this post, we will continue further and will learn various functions in C programming to read and display file contents on console.
How to read data from a file?
C programming supports four predefined functions fgetc()
, fgets()
, fscanf()
and fread()
to read data from file. These functions are defined in stdio.h
header file.
fgetc()
- Used to read single character from file.fgets()
- Used to read string from file.fscanf()
- Use this to read formatted input from file.fread()
- Read block of raw bytes from file. Used to read binary files.
Step by step descriptive logic to read a file and display file contents.
- Open a file using
fopen()
function and store its reference in aFILE
pointer say fPtr.
You must open file in r(read) mode or atleast mode that support read access.
- Read content from file using any of these functions
fgetc()
,fgets()
,fscanf()
orfread()
. - Finally, close the file using
fclose(fPtr)
.
In this post I will explain how to read a file using fgetc()
and fgets()
. I will explain separately how to read formatted input and binary files.
How to read a file character by character using fgetc()?
int fgetc(FILE * stream);
- The function accepts pointer to
FILE
type, source stream to read. - On each successful read it return character (ASCII value) read from stream and advance read position to next character.
It returns a constant EOF (-1) on unsuccessful read or if there is no more content to read.
Suppose data/file1.txt
contains
Hurray!!! I learned to create file in C programming. I also learned to write contents to file. Next, I will learn to read contents from file on Codeforwin. Happy coding ;)
Program:
/** * C program to read a file and display file contents character by character using fgetc() */ #include #include int main() { /* File pointer to hold reference to our file */ FILE * fPtr; char ch; /* * Open file in r (read) mode. * "data/file1.txt" is complete file path to read */ fPtr = fopen("data/file1.txt", "r"); /* fopen() return NULL if last operation was unsuccessful */ if(fPtr == NULL) { /* Unable to open file hence exit */ printf("Unable to open file.\n"); printf("Please check whether file exists and you have read privilege.\n"); exit(EXIT_FAILURE); } /* File open success message */ printf("File opened successfully. Reading file contents character by character. \n\n"); do { /* Read single character from file */ ch = fgetc(fPtr); /* Print character read on console */ putchar(ch); } while(ch != EOF); /* Repeat this if last read character is not EOF */ /* Done with this file, close file to release resource */ fclose(fPtr); return 0; }
Output:
File opened successfully. Reading file contents character by character. Hurray!!! I learned to create file in C programming. I also learned to write contents to file. Next, I will learn to read contents from file on Codeforwin. Happy coding ;)
Explanation:
Program to read a file line by line using fgets()
Suppose data/file2.txt
contains
Reading a file line by line.
--------------------------------------------
I love programming in C.
Learning programming on Codeforwin is easy.
/** * C program to read a file and display file contents line by line using fgets() */ #include #include #include #define BUFFER_SIZE 1000 int main() { /* File pointer to hold reference to our file */ FILE * fPtr; char buffer[BUFFER_SIZE]; int totalRead = 0; /* * Open file in r (read) mode. * "data/file2.txt" is complete file path to read */ fPtr = fopen("data/file2.txt", "r"); /* fopen() return NULL if last operation was unsuccessful */ if(fPtr == NULL) { /* Unable to open file hence exit */ printf("Unable to open file.\n"); printf("Please check whether file exists and you have read privilege.\n"); exit(EXIT_FAILURE); } /* File open success message */ printf("File opened successfully. Reading file contents line by line. \n\n"); /* Repeat this until read line is not NULL */ while(fgets(buffer, BUFFER_SIZE, fPtr) != NULL) { /* Total character read count */ totalRead = strlen(buffer); /* * Trim new line character from last if exists. */ buffer[totalRead - 1] = buffer[totalRead - 1] == '\n' ? '\0' : buffer[totalRead - 1]; /* Print line read on cosole*/ printf("%s\n", buffer); } /* Done with this file, close file to release resource */ fclose(fPtr); return 0; }
File opened successfully. Reading file contents line by line. Reading a file line by line. -------------------------------------------- I love programming in C. Learning programming on Codeforwin is easy.
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