C File I/O

Hi all, I'm learning C for the first time (first time learning any programming language). I'm currently going through the tutorial on this site. After reading the tutorial on file I/O I've been trying a few things out.
I'm trying to find a way of asking the user for an input, and then using this input to name a file.

Originally I had:

Code:

#include<stdio.h>

int main(){
FILE *fp;
fp=fopen("d:\\name_of_file.txt","w");
fprintf(fp, "this is text printed in the file");
getchar();
return 0;
}

Then i want to make this something like the following:

Code:

#include<stdio.h>

int main(){
char x[20];
FILE *fp;
printf("Please enter a name for the file...\n");
fgets(x, 20, stdin);
fp=fopen("d:\\name_of_file.txt","w");           //here i want x to be the name of the file 
fprintf(fp, "this is text printed in the file");
getchar();
return 0;
}

Is there a way of doing something like :

Code:

fp=fopen("d:\\%c",x,"w");

Thanks for any help.

In short, no. You create a variable for the file name, read the user's choice into that variable, then use the functions shown to you in your previous thread to assemble the full path to the file, which you pass to fopen.

So create a variable for the filename:

Code:

char x [20];

Read the user's choice into that variable:

Code:

fgets(x, 20, stdin)

But i can't see how this would be passed to fopen...

x is a C string, and the first argument to fopen is also a C string, so it is just a matter of using x as an argument. Of course, this does not mean that x is free of problems. You may want to check if (or append one so) the user's string has a certain file extension. You also have to look for and erase the newline fgets places in the string if there is room.

Handling of files poses its own challenges, and that is why there are so many tutorials in our FAQ about it.

Also don't forget to call fclose on that FILE pointer after you are done with everything.

You can use strxxx functions from string.h or use snprintf().
Eg.

Code:

char file_name[50];
/* don't forget to strip newline char in x if there's any */
snprintf(file_name,sizeof(file_name),"%s%s.%s","d:\\\\",x,"txt");
fp = fopen(file_name,"w");

If you're wondering why \\\\, answer.