Parsing a formatted text file into an array of structs

**onus1111** · 06-18-2011

Hi, I have a text file that looks like this:

zoo.txt

Code:

1 0 0 90 3 1
1 1 0 62 1 2
1 2 0 64 1 2
1 3 0 65 1 2
1 4 0 61 1 2
1 5 0 62 1 2
1 6 0 58 1 2
1 7 1 57 1 1

The numbers are separated by spaces and newline characters, and I would like to read it into an array of identical structs:

Code:

	struct _animal {
		int zoo, tag, pen, ability, diet, age;
	};

	struct _animal zoo [numberOfAnimals];

What file functions should I use?

I tried fscanf but I have to use a lot of repetition, and I cant use fread because it's a text file not a binary file

Also, how do I find out the value of numberOfAnimals, besides the method below

Code:

	FILE *inputfile;

	inputFile = fopen ("zoo.txt", "r");
	
	while ( (c = getc (inputFile) ) != EOF) {
		numberOfAnimals+= (c == '\n');
	}

	fclose (inputFile)

	printf ("%d", numberOfAnimals)

**~~CommonTater~~** · 06-18-2011

Originally Posted by onus1111

The numbers are separated by spaces and newline characters, and I would like to read it into an array of identical structs:

What file functions should I use?

I would use fgets() to read the file line by line. One line corresponds to one struct so I would use sscanf() to extract the data from the text buffer filled by fgets().

I tried fscanf but I have to use a lot of repetition

That my friend is why the gods of C gave us loops.

Also, how do I find out the value of numberOfAnimals, besides the method below

There are multiple methods of making the actual number of animals (i.e. lines) in the file unimportant... You can build a linked list. You can set up an array of structs with malloc() and then expand it with realloc() as needed. You can go "brute force" and create an array bigger than you'll ever need. Etc.

**onus1111** · 06-19-2011

thanks for the great help

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