Thread: Reading in comma separated numbers from a data file

Hello C programming gurus! I am attempting to read in a file that has 4128 sets of 21 numbers separated by commas and write it into an array. I now know that in order to use fseek, I have to make my array a character array, but I need my function to read in decimals (ex: 0.172635). I'm reading in 0.102598,0.000000,0.000000,0.000000,0.000000,0.307 793,0.000000,0.410391,0.102598,0.000000,0.102598,0 .102598,0.000000,0.000000,0.102598,0.102598,0.8207 83,0.000000,0.000000,0.000000,0.000000 and keep getting numbers like 48 49 50...etc. here is my code, what am I doing wrong?

Code:

void CSread(char filename[100], char array[22], char array2[22], unsigned int arraysize)
{
 char genename[32];
 double temp = 0;
 
 FILE *CSfile;
 CSfile = fopen(filename, "r");
 
 if ( CSfile == NULL ) 
 {
  perror ( "Unable to open file" );
  exit ( EXIT_FAILURE );
 }
 
 fseek(CSfile, 0, SEEK_SET);
 fgets(array, 21, CSfile); 
 printf("The values of the first array are: ");
 for (int i=0; i < 22; i++)
 {
  printf("%d ",array[i]);
 }
 
 printf("\n");
 
 fseek(CSfile, 21, SEEK_SET);
 fgets(array2, 21, CSfile);
 printf("The values of the second array are: ");
 for (int j=0; j < 22; j++)
 {
  printf("%d ",array2[j]);
 }
 printf("\n");

Code:

fgets(array, 21, CSfile);

This line will read 20 characters from the file. fgets() doesn't know anything about comma seperated values.

Originally Posted by littlemslexii

I now know that in order to use fseek, I have to make my array a character array

???
fseek() has nothing to do with arrays.

It looks like you are lacking some fundamentals. Is this for homework?

Bye, Andreas

Originally Posted by AndiPersti

Code:

fgets(array, 21, CSfile);

This line will read 20 characters from the file. fgets() doesn't know anything about comma seperated values.


???
fseek() has nothing to do with arrays.

It looks like you are lacking some fundamentals. Is this for homework?

Bye, Andreas

I am definitely lacking some fundamentals. No, it's not for homework. I just need a code to do something specific for my research. I've been trying to feel my way through with a book and some websites, but many times the lingo is hard to follow. I just need to know how to read a file in with 6 digit decimals separated by commas. All the forums keep telling me to use fgets(), but it reads in numbers like 48. fseek was a last resort but it was working as far as printing the numbers into the array.

Have a read: fscanf - C++ Reference

Either use fscanf() or read in the entire file into memory and use memchr() to first search for newlines to find the end of lines, then use memchr() to find tabs or commas. You could also use strtok() to search for multiple delimeters.

Thank you all! Just to clarify, I was using fseek to force the function to read from a specific position in the data file. I am trying to take the dot product between neighboring genes and need to make a sort of sliding window. I have changed it to fscanf(), but my function is still not reading in the decimal numbers. Instead of 0.2 I'm getting a large number (526041265228644680000000000000000000000.000000) and then 0's for the rest of my values. I don't understand why it's not reading the values from my data file. Here is the updated code:

Code:

void CSread(char filename[100], float array[22], float array2[22], unsigned int arraysize, int n, int m)
{
 char genename[32];
 float temp = 0;
 
 FILE *CSfile;
 CSfile = fopen(filename, "r");
 
 if ( CSfile == NULL ) 
 {
  perror ( "Unable to open file" );
  exit ( EXIT_FAILURE );
 }
 
 fscanf(CSfile,"%f%*c", array);
 
 for (int i=0; i<22; i++)
 {
  printf("Array 1 = ");
  printf("%f ", array[i]);
  printf("\n");
 } 
 fclose(CSfile);
}

You want to read in numbers like this:
0.102598,0.000000,0.000000,0.000000,0.000000,0.307 793,0.000000,0.410391,0.102598,0.000000,0.102598,0 .102598,0.000000,0.000000,0.102598,0.102598,0.8207 83,0.000000,0.000000,0.000000,0.000000

Stop using fseek(). sscanf() has an operator for what you want, and could be used like this:

Use fgets() to take in one full row of numbers at a time
use sscanf() to pick out the numbers from the buffer that holds the entire row of numbers. (using [^,], as your format specifier).

So how many numbers do you have per row? 21?

How are the sets delimited?

Can you post just a small sample in the format in the same format?

Code:

fscanf(CSfile,"%f%*c", array);

This reads just the first value from the file.
You need a loop to read in all values.

How does your file look like? Can you post some lines?

Bye, Andreas