Thread: Counting characters

Hi all,

Am trying to write some code that will read a simple text file and return what is placed in the text file along with how many characters there are. Reading the file works but am having a problem with the correct number of characters, keeps on saying minus 1. If anyone could help i would be very grateful. Thanks in advance.


#include<stdio.h>

int main(void)

{
FILE * input_file;
char input_filename[20];
char file[20];
int rval, ch;

printf("Please input the file name you wish to open: ");
scanf("%s", input_filename);

input_file=fopen(input_filename,"r");

rval=fscanf(input_file,"%s",file);
printf("%s\n",file);

while((fgetc(input_file))!=EOF);
{
ch=fgetc(input_file);
printf("%d characters in file.\n", EOF);
}

fclose(input_file);

return 0;
}

I read something a while back about getting the size of a file. Being as 1 character = 1 byte, I'm *assuming* you can use the same method to count the characters. The method was basically to use fseek(fp, 0L, SEEK_END) and ftell(fp).

Would that work here, or am I getting muddled with something else?

John.

Originally posted by John.H
I read something a while back about getting the size of a file. Being as 1 character = 1 byte, I'm *assuming* you can use the same method to count the characters. The method was basically to use fseek(fp, 0L, SEEK_END) and ftell(fp).

Would that work here, or am I getting muddled with something else?

Maybe.