I checked the value of EOF and found that its value is -1.In dennis ritchie it is given that we need to take a variable which should be big enough to hold EOF value.... thats because he has taken that variable as integer type.... but why do we need integer type to store -1... why cant we declare that variable as char type??
And if you use a char, how do you tell the difference between -1 (the character) and EOF (which has the value -1, but isn't a valid character). After all, you can use fgetc() on a binary file, which may contain ANY value between 0..255 viewed as unsigned values, or -128..127 as a signed. The C library needs to have a value for EOF that is OUTSIDE of the valid characters, right? So letting fgetc() and related functions return EOF as -1, and characters as the unsigned value 0..255 (which automatically turns into the corresponding -128..127 range when translated to signed char), then we can tell the difference between "a char with all bits set" and the error condition of "there is something wrong here", which is really what EOF signifies [but 99999 out of 100000 times you get EOF, the reason is that you've read everything from the file].
--
Mats
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Because the ASCII charset doesn't go backwards. Reading a character of 128+ might be EOF.
"Why can't we use unsigned char?" You ask. Same reason.
There is some information about EOF in the Programming FAQ.
The way I think about it (which might not be 100% correct) is that EOF has a value, but EOF is not simply a value...
I used to think it was exactly like the null-termination of a C-style string, but that was WRONG! If you stick a null in the middle of a string, the program will treat that null as the end of the string. If you stick a -1 in the middle of a file, the program wil not treat it as end of the file.
Interesting. I think I may owe zacs7 an apology over this, tho he may not know why...Originally Posted by DougDbug
[edit] no, it was kermit still sorry tho
Last edited by MK27; 01-15-2009 at 09:50 PM.
C programming resources:
GNU C Function and Macro Index -- glibc reference manual
The C Book -- nice online learner guide
Current ISO draft standard
CCAN -- new CPAN like open source library repository
3 (different) GNU debugger tutorials: #1 -- #2 -- #3
cpwiki -- our wiki on sourceforge
I'd say that "EOF is a value" would also be correct, since EOF is a macro.
Now I'm curious... why?
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