Thread: Return File Contents as String

Hello,


I am completely new to C programming. Below code is that I gathered from Google searches and maybe incorrect.


I am trying to code a function which will read a file on system and return its content back as string. Code is below.

Code:

char * readtxt(){
    FILE * fptr;
    char  c;
    static char txt[30];
    int len=0;


    fptr = fopen("C:\\Users\\Test\\Desktop\\Dev\\test.txt", "r");
    
    while(1){
        c = fgetc(fptr);
        if(c!= EOF) {
            txt[len]=c;
            len++;
        }
        else
            break;
    }
    fclose(fptr);  


    return txt;  
}

I suppose txt variable is pointer. But I need to return the file content as string so the function structure should look like

Code:

returnType function(){
return "File Contents as String";
}

How can I achieve this please?


Cheers

Originally Posted by Elkvis

You need to find out the size of the file using fseek and ftell, and then dynamically allocate memory using malloc, and then read the contents of the file into the allocated memory.

Hi,

Thank you very much for the reply.

Any code example please. I am really newbie and having difficulty to create C code listing.

Cheers

Originally Posted by Salem

Also here -> Return File Contents
@OP - you should stick to one forum at once, at least while you're making some progress over there.

Sorry but I want to stick anywhere I want. Your reply is not related to my question and topic.

Originally Posted by Salem

Here, read this as well then
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way

I will have to report you if you do not cease flooding my question!

Did you read the link provided in post #6? And by the way I find both posts very relevant to your problem.

As to your actual question, I suggest you stop "Googling for the answer" and start writing your own code, then you may actually learn to program.

Jim

Originally Posted by NecNecco

Sorry but I want to stick anywhere I want. Your reply is not related to my question and topic.

I'll tell you where you can stick it! Just kidding...sort of. There are at least a couple of reasons you should not cross-post (i.e. post in multiple forums). I'm not trying to be an a-hole or patronizing, rather to point out some issues with cross-posting you may not have been aware of.

First, and most simply, it's against the forum rules (see this link, #3 in particular). When you signed up for an account, you agreed to read and abide by those rules. Simply put, you broke the rules and violated the terms of your membership. Salem as a moderator (one who is responsible for maintaining order in the forum), is perfectly justified in his response in #4. He simply reminded you of the rules you apprently forgot, misunderstood or outright ignored. If you really don't like our rules, disagree with them, or simply don't care to follow them, you're more than welcome to not use our forum. But if you want to use our forum, and our free service of (IMNSHO) excellent advice/help, you should consider showing more respect and courtesy to the members whom you seek help from and the moderators who keep this forum so effective and useful.

Second, it results in a lot of duplicated effort. We may spend our time and effort -- which we volunteer for free, despite having jobs, school, families, etc -- when you don't really need our help since somebody on another forum already answered your question. Effectively, it's being disrespectful of those who are trying to help you. As an analogy, you wouldn't call several pizza delivery places, order a pizza from each, and only pay for the first pizza that arrives. Why would you treat our time and effort with that kind of disregard?

We like to help people -- as I mentioned, we don't get paid, we volunteer what little spare time and energy we have -- and one of the ways we can make sure we can continue to be helpful to everybody, is by ensuring people follow forum guidelines and etiquette. I suggest you read the following link (don't take the title personally): How To Ask Questions The Smart Way. It has a lot of great advice as to how to get the most out of your forum and mailing list experiences.

Originally Posted by NecNecco

I will have to report you if you do not cease flooding my question!

Oh, the irony. You realize you would report such an "offense" to a moderator. Do you also realize that Salem is a moderator. And do you realize that he hasn't broken any rules, unlike you?

Reminder, you broke the rules. Your "reporting" Salem for explaining the rules you broke and how not to break the rules, is like trying to report a police officer who pulled you over for running a red light, because you think that red lights shouldn't apply to you and the police officer shouldn't be enforcing the law.