From file to 2D arrays

[arya6000]

Hello

I have to scan this information from a file into arrays like:

Arrays:

employeeNumber[5][4]

lastName[5][13]

firstName[5][13]

payGroup[5][11]

hoursWorked[5][100]


File:

0001:Satriani:Joe:6:38.0
0002:Vai:Steve:1:44.5
0003:Morse:Steve:10:50.0
0004:Van Halen:Eddie:3:25.75
0005:Petrucci:John:8:42.25
0006:Beck:Jeff:3:62.0

how would I scan the file into 2D arrays?

[zacs7]

They're 1D arrays, or do you mean have employeeNumber[line][4] ?

Either way, read the lines with fgets(), scan each line with sscanf().

If you want 2D arrays, work out how many records you have and allocate memory accordingly.

[arya6000]

I edited the post so now its more clear, I want to store all those information in array so I can do farther calculations on them in other functions

[whiteflags]

Have you tried anything like
- opening your file
- reading each record in a big line
- parse the line into your arrays.

Parsing usually jus means that you are breaking up a bunch of text data into its parts for analysis. You did that with the English language in grammar school. Use the string library to at least come up with a guess on how to do that part of your homework.

[zacs7]

You'll need a loop to go over each line, making sure you say inbounds of your max records.

[arya6000]

You'll need a loop to go over each line, making sure you say inbounds of your max records.

I want to do that, but I don't know how I would stop the loop, for regular strings I use "NULL" or "\n" as a stopping point, but for the file it has to go to the next line.

[arya6000]

I figured it out, I can use !EOF

[zacs7]

fgets() returns NULL when it fails to read (ie at the end of the file).

while(fgets(line, sizeof(line), fp) != NULL && i < MAX_RECORDS)
{
    /* ... */

[arya6000]

Thanks zacs

before reading your massage I wrote the program using scanf, but the compiler complains about the line with the "while (fp != EOF);"

This is what I have so far:

main()
{
  FILE *fp;
  int i = 0, j = 0, payGroup;
  char employeeNum[10][5], firstName[10][12], lastName[10][12];
  double workedHours[10];
  fp = fopen("employees.dat", "r");
  if (fp) {
  do {
     fscanf(fp, "%4[^:]:%12[^:]:%12[^:]:%d:%lf\n", employeeNum[i], firstName[i],
     lastName[i], &payGroup, workedHours[i]);
     i++;
     }while(fp != EOF);
           }
   else
    printf("Cannot read employees.dat file\n");

}

Any idea why the compiler is complaining?

[whiteflags]

> fscanf(fp, "%4[^:]:%12[^:]:%12[^:]:%d:%lf\n", employeeNum[i], firstName[i], lastName[i], &payGroup, workedHours[i]

The fscanf function requires pointers to the variables you want it to change. Inteerestingly, fscanf is also a good choice for reading this particular format.

Also, fp is a pointer, which can only be compared with other file pointers. fp will never be EOF.

I'm not really sure you need 2d array for half of these variables. Let's see if we can simplify a little bit:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
struct employee_t 
{
    char   employeeNumber[5];
    char   lastName[13];
    char   firstName[13];
    int    payGroup;
    float  hoursWorked;
};
int
process( struct employee_t ar[6], FILE * finp )
{
    if( finp != NULL ) {
        size_t idx = 0;
        int scan = 0;
        do {
            scan = fscanf( finp, "%4[^:]:%12[^:]:%12[^:]:%d:%f\n",
                &ar[idx].employeeNumber, &ar[idx].lastName, &ar[idx].firstName, 
                &ar[idx].payGroup, &ar[idx].hoursWorked );
            if( ferror( finp ) ) {
                printf( "Error reading input file line %ul\n", ( unsigned long )idx + 1 );
                return -1;
            }
            idx++;
        }
        while( scan == 5 );
        return 0;
    }
    return 1;
}
int 
main( void )
{
    struct employee_t my_employees[6];

    const char * filepath = "C:/Documents and Settings/JCK/Desktop/samp.txt";

    FILE * finp = fopen( filepath, "r" );
    size_t idx = 0;
    if( finp != NULL ) {
        if( process( my_employees, finp ) == 0 ) {
            for( idx = 0; idx < sizeof my_employees / sizeof my_employees[0]; idx++ )
                printf( "%s: %s, %s\tGroup: %2d Hours: %2.2f\n", 
                    my_employees[idx].employeeNumber, 
                    my_employees[idx].lastName, 
                    my_employees[idx].firstName, 
                    my_employees[idx].payGroup,
                    my_employees[idx].hoursWorked );

            fclose( finp );
        }
    }
    else {
        printf( "Couldn't open input file\n" );
    }
    return 0;
}

There. Correct, errors all nice and handled, and the file format's been read. Don't always jump to 2d or 3d arrays: often you dont need them.

[robwhit]

have you read this?