A file is defined as a collection of data stored on the secondary device such as hard disk. An input file contains the same items we might have typed in form the keyboard .
An output file contains the same information that might have been sent to the screen as the output from our program.
Steps in using the file
Declare a file pointer variable.
Open a file
Read the data from the file or write the data into the file.
Close the file.
Declare a file pointer variable
We know that all the variables are declared before they are used likewise a file pointer variable also should be declared.
A file pointer variable fp should be declared as a pointer to structure of type FILE as.
Example of declaring a file pointer variable.
#include<stdio.h>
FILE*fp /*here, fp is a pointer to a structure FILE */
void main()
{
file operations
}
File open and close functions
The file should be opened before reading a file or before writing into a file.
Syntax to open a file for either read or write operations.
#include<stdio.h>
FILE *fp; /*here, fp is a pointer to a structure FILE */
void main()
{
......
......
fp=fopen(char*filename,char*mode);
}
Where, fp is a file pointer of type FILE.
filename:- holds the name of the file to be opened. The filename should be identifier.
mode:- may be
Mode of file
. Open a text file for reading, this method is used for opening an exiting file to perform read operations
w this mode is used to create a file.
a append to a text file, this mode is used to insert the data at end of the existing file.
