Thread: Creating files

Hi all,

I've just learned how to create files in C, and I have an entire program written for an inventory. The code compiles and runs, the problem is that the file that I have created won't open within the program. The function prototype that initializes the file is below:

Code:

void initialize(void)
{
	int i;

	struct inventory blanklist = { 0, "", 0, 0.0};

	FILE *cfptr;

	if((cfptr = fopen("harware.dat", "wb+")) == NULL){
		printf("File could not be found");
	}
	else{
		for(i = 1; i <= 100; i++){
			fwrite(&blanklist, sizeof(struct inventory), 1, cfptr);
		}
	}
}

So my questions is, what is the best way to create a file, then use it in the program itself?

What do you mean by "won't open within the program"? If you mean you get the "file could not be found" thing, that's very strange as the file should be created if it doesn't already exist.

Now, you do need to fclose your file at the end of this function -- file I/O is pretty much always buffered, and so it's not going to get written (at all) to the file itself until you close the file (or do a flush, I suppose). Then another function can fopen it, etc.

Originally Posted by MK27

Ouch! Didn't know that...then again I usually do fclose() just to stay in style.

Obviously if your program returns normally, all the buffers are flushed. It's when you want to write to the file and then read that back in the same program where you have to be careful.

OK, I used the following line to close it in the function.

Code:

fclose(cfptr);

When I ran the program, I still got the message "File could not be found".

I do try to reopen it within the main code of the program, but it isn't working.

Do you get the file could not be found message here, or where you try to open it elsewhere? Did you spell it "correctly" ("hardware.dat") the other time?

God, I can't believe a typo was causing me so much grief! Thanks for spotting that! It's working now. Thanks again for your help.