Need help opening a user provided file

**C-UL8R** · 11-21-2020

Hi everyone,

This is my first real attempt at file i/o stuff in C. The user should be able to choose whether to import the provided file or their own file, and I was able to open the provided file.

The problem arises when they choose to import their own file (when the argument "provided" is false). They don't even get to enter the filename before a segmentation fault occurs. What's wrong with the way I did this?

Code:

  void import(bool provided) {
  String filename;
  FILE *f = fopen(provided? "Lab6-Data.csv": fgets(filename, 50, stdin), "r");
  putchar(fgetc(f));
  fclose(f);
}

P.S. I used a typedef to rename 'char *' to String, I am using C.

**jimblumberg** · 11-21-2020

My first question is: What is a String?

Why are you trying to write to a file that was opened in read mode?

**C-UL8R** · 11-21-2020

I edited in regards to "String". I am trying to read it and print a character from it to main.c, not write to it.

**jimblumberg** · 11-21-2020

P.S. I used a typedef to rename 'char *' to String, I am using C.

Okay so where did you allocate memory for that pointer?

Also please don't edit your post to answer questions, post the new information in another post in the topic.

**C-UL8R** · 11-21-2020

I don't really know much about memory but I declared the pointer "filename" inside the function with "String filename;". I also tried declaring it like this: "char filename[50];" but that didn't fix anything. Initializing it as an array also didn't help.

**stahta01** · 11-21-2020

Post code that either compiles or post the errors you get when you try to compile the code you post!

Tim S.

**stahta01** · 11-21-2020

Add a test to verify that "f" is not NULL.

Tim S.

**stahta01** · 11-21-2020

Write your own function that you use in place of fgets (your function calls fgets and gets rid of the trailing newline).

Tim S.

**Sir Galahad** · 11-21-2020

You should also be checking the FILE* returned by fopen(). Otherwise, the program will crash if the file doesn't exist.

Reading the file will require a loop.

Code:

for(;;)
{
 int c = fgetc(f);
 if(c == EOF)
  break;
/*
 ...now process the next character...
*/
}

**thmm** · 11-22-2020

Consider sth. like this:

Code:

bool import(bool provided)
{
    char file_name[256] = { 0 };
    FILE* src = NULL;


    if (provided)
    {
        src = fopen("Lab6-Data.csv", "r");
        if (src == NULL)
            return false;
    }
    else
    {
        printf("Enter filename: ");
        if (fgets(file_name, sizeof(file_name), stdin) == NULL)
            return false;
        char* cp = strchr(file_name, '\n'); // check for trailing '\n'
        if (cp != NULL)
            *cp = '\0';
    }
    src = fopen(file_name, "r");
    if (src == NULL)
        return false;


    int ch = 0;
    while ((ch = fgetc(src)) != EOF)
        putc(ch, stdout);
    fclose(src);


    return true;
}

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