redirection and binary files

**caroundw5h** · 03-29-2004

currently studying redirection in my C book and was wondering if its possible to use redirection to read a binary file. I tried to read an excel file for example and i just got a bunch of weird characters and spacees. Any ideas why?

**tzuchan** · 03-29-2004

How exactly did you try to read the excel file? Do you know the file format they use to store data in the excel file? (I know I don't...)

Also, in order to read binary files, you need to use fread.

**Codeplug** · 03-29-2004

>> Any ideas why?
Because it's binary.

Binary files contain bytes which aren't necessarily printable.

gg

**linuxdude** · 03-29-2004

Think about it...If i write to a file with a stucture declared as

Code:

struct info{
     int x;
     short y;
     char *width;
     double z;
     long long cat;
};

and you read it with something like a character array, what do you think you'll get. Meaningless garbage(basically) You need to read with that same type of struct to get what you want.

**caroundw5h** · 03-29-2004

>>>to linuxdude.

Which you never know cause it could be anything. I guess thats makes sense.

in regards to how i read the file
from the command line, in the same directory where the files are:

read < vocab.txt

where read is a .exe in C to read each character unitl EOF and vocab is a text document.

**Dave_Sinkula** · 03-29-2004

It is mentioned here that it may be possible to use a nonstandard function to reopen the stdin in binary mode.

**caroundw5h** · 03-29-2004

Originally Posted by Dave_Sinkula

It is mentioned here that it may be possible to use a nonstandard function to reopen the stdin in binary mode.

Thanks for the link.

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