Thread: replacing a file. delete old. rename new as old title.

I am working on a program that updates a sequential-access master file with data from a file containing recent transactions. After combining this data, a new master file is created. I have that much working so far, but what I want to do now is replace the old master file with the new master file. I want to do this by first deleting the old master file. Then I want to rename the new master file with the name of the old. I haven't used the rename function yet because I haven't gotten the remove function to work correctly. What happens is that the remove function returns 0, yet the file remains. I have been searching for answers on the internet, and it seems many people reviewing this issue have suggested it concerns the operating system. The operating system I am using is Windows 7 64 bit. The answers I have found suggest using the Windows API function GetLastError(). After running my code, GetLastError returns 183. This is the code for "Cannot create a file when that file already exists" so I'm not sure that this pertains to my issue.

Code:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <windows.h>
 
void createOld();
void createTransfer();
void createNew();
 
int main(void) {
 
    createOld();
    createTransfer();
    createNew();
    
    if (remove("oldMaster.dat") != 0) {
        puts("Error deleting oldMaster.dat");
    }
    else {
        puts("oldMaster.dat file removed");
    }
    
    printf("error code: %d\n", GetLastError());
 
}
 
void createOld() {
    FILE* fPtr;
    if ((fPtr = fopen("oldMaster.dat", "w")) == NULL) {
        puts("Error opening oldMaster.dat for writing");
    }
 
    fprintf(fPtr, "%d %s %.2f\n", 100, "Alan Jones", (float)348.17);
    fprintf(fPtr, "%d %s %.2f\n", 300, "Mary Smith", (float)27.19);
    fprintf(fPtr, "%d %s %.2f\n", 500, "Sam Sharp", (float)0.00);
    fprintf(fPtr, "%d %s %.2f\n", 700, "Suzy Green", (float)-14.22);
 
    fclose(fPtr);
}
 
void createTransfer() {
    FILE* fPtr;
    if ((fPtr = fopen("transfer.dat", "w")) == NULL) {
        puts("Error opening transfer.dat for writing");
    }
 
    fprintf(fPtr, "%d %.2f\n", 100, 27.14);
    fprintf(fPtr, "%d %.2f\n", 300, 62.11);
    fprintf(fPtr, "%d %.2f\n", 400, 100.56);
    fprintf(fPtr, "%d %.2f\n", 900, 82.17);
 
    fclose(fPtr);
}
 
void createNew() {
    FILE* ofPtr;
    if ((ofPtr = fopen("oldMaster.dat", "r")) == NULL) {
        puts("Error opening oldMaster.dat!");
        return;
    }
 
    FILE* tfPtr;
    if ((tfPtr = fopen("transfer.dat", "r")) == NULL) {
        puts("Error opening transfer.dat!");
        return;
    }
 
    FILE* nfPtr;
    if ((nfPtr = fopen("newMaster.dat", "w")) == NULL) {
        puts("Error opening new master.dat!");
        return;
    }
 
    struct record {
        int accNum;
        char firstName[10];
        char lastName[10];
        float bal;
    } old;
 
    struct adjust {
        int accNum;
        float bal;
    } trans;
 
    fscanf(ofPtr, "%d %s %s %f", &old.accNum, old.firstName, old.lastName, &old.bal);
 
    while (!feof(ofPtr)) {
 
        fscanf(tfPtr, "%d %f", &trans.accNum, &trans.bal);
 
        while (old.accNum != trans.accNum && !feof(tfPtr)) {
 
            fscanf(tfPtr, "%d %f", &trans.accNum, &trans.bal);
        }
 
        if (old.accNum == trans.accNum) {
 
            fprintf(nfPtr, "%d %s %s %.2f\n", old.accNum, old.firstName, old.lastName, old.bal - trans.bal);
        }
        else {
 
            fprintf(nfPtr, "%d %s %s %.2f\n", old.accNum, old.firstName, old.lastName, old.bal);
        }
 
        fscanf(ofPtr, "%d %s %s %f", &old.accNum, old.firstName, old.lastName, &old.bal);
 
        rewind(tfPtr);
    }
    rewind(ofPtr);
 
    fscanf(tfPtr, "%d %f", &trans.accNum, &trans.bal);
 
    while (!feof(tfPtr)) {
 
        fscanf(ofPtr, "%d %s %s %f", &old.accNum, &old.firstName, &old.lastName, &old.bal);
 
        while (!feof(ofPtr) && old.accNum != trans.accNum) {
            fscanf(ofPtr, "%d %s %s %f", &old.accNum, &old.firstName, &old.lastName, &old.bal);
        }
 
        if (old.accNum != trans.accNum) {
 
            printf("Unmatched transaction record for account %d\n", trans.accNum);
        }
 
        fscanf(tfPtr, "%d %f", &trans.accNum, &trans.bal);
    }
 
    fclose(ofPtr);
    fclose(tfPtr);
    fclose(nfPtr);
}

I spent all day trying to figure this out and I just now realized that I was looking in the wrong directory. I had created a previous version of this program in another folder and was looking at the files that belonged to the previous version and wondered why oldMaster.dat was not deleting.