How do I change the contents of the file to *

I need to change the contents of this file to *
For each letter in the file I need a *
It's a programme to play hangman so I need the stars to 'cover' the letters that the user will have to guess. I just don't know how to print the contents of the file using stars instead. I don't want to put stars in the file instead of the letters because the user will have to guess them later. this is what I have written so far:

Code:

---

              char filename[FILENAME_MAX + 1];
                        FILE *fpin, *fstar;
                        char temp, x, i;
                        char readfile[SIZE];
                        char *read;
                       
                       
                        printf("\nGet the filename with the unknown word: ");
                        scanf("%s", filename);
                       
                        fpin=&filename[FILENAME_MAX +1];
                               
                               
                                if((fpin = fopen(filename, READONLY)) == NULL){
                                       
                                        printf("Cannot open file\n");
                                        exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
                               
                                }
                               
                        printf("\nReady to start");
                       
                                if(fputc(x, fpin) == EOF){
                                        if(!feof(fpin)){
                                        printf("\nError reading from input file");
                                        }
                                        else if{
                                        printf("\nEnd Of File");
                                        }
                                        else{
                                        printf("\nmain: error writing to output file");
                                        break;
                                        }
                                        }
                               
                       
                                i=fputc(x, fpin);
                               
                                printf("\n%c", i);

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I also thought I could count the number of entries in the file and then print that number of stars but I don't know how to print the number of stars to correspond the number of letters in the string

Code:

---

char filename[FILENAME_MAX + 1];
                        FILE *fpin, *fstar;
                        char temp, x, i;
                        char readfile[SIZE];
                        char *read;
                       
                       
                        printf("\nGet the filename with the unknown word: ");
                        scanf("%s", filename);
                       
                        fpin=&filename[FILENAME_MAX +1];
                               
                               
                                if((fpin = fopen(filename, READONLY)) == NULL){
                                       
                                        printf("Cannot open file\n");
                                        exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
                               
                                }
length=strlen(filename);
printf(“\nNumber of characters in the string is=%d”,length);

---

I just don't know how I would print the stars now

get the number of letters in the file, or size/length of the string, store that in int & use that for a loop to print stars.

i.e.

Code:

---

int numberLetters = filename.size();
for(int i = 0; i<numberLetters;i++)
{
cout<<stars<<"\n";
}

---

I've never used cout<<stars<<"\n";

Does that just mean printf?

cout is for output, so yeah.

I've tried a few different ways to write it with printf.

Code:

---

printf("%d", i);

---

But I don't see how that will print the stars.
How would I use printf to print the stars?

That might be because %d is not used for char
printf - C++ Reference

.
Judging from the previous posts, I don't think this is a c++ question so I'll keep it 'C' syntax to show an example of another way to do this.

Start off by putting all your 'read' stuff in it's own function:

Code:

---

char* yourReadFunction()
{
long        fsize;
char        stars[255];
static char buf[255];
char        fname[] = "MyFilename.ext";
FILE      *fp;

//try opening file
if((fp=fopem(fname,"rt"))==NULL)
    return (char *)NULL;

/*
getting the whole file like this isn't
a good idea for just one string...

//get file-size
fseek(fp,0,SEEK_END);
fsize=ftell(fp);
rewind(fp);

//read-in file, don't overrun buffer...
fread(buf, 1, sizeof(buf)-1, fp);
*/

//instead, just get the first -significant- line,
//bunp past any CRLFs on empty lines.
while(!feof(fp)){
    fgets(buf, sizeof(buf)-1, fp);
    if( (strlen(buf))>2 )
        break;
}

//done with file
fclose(fp);

//clear and set stars buffer
memset(stars,  0,  sizeof(stars));
memset(stars, '*',  strlen(buf);

//print to stdout, set cursor to overwrite
printf("%s\r", stars);

//return file-buffer to caller
return buf;
}

---

Once the calling function has the buffer, you can check the keyboard input against the buffer-contents to see if the user gets a match on any letters then print a new string with correct letter guesses in the right positions and '*' in unguessed positions.

Using '\r' instead of '\n' will keep the console output always on the same line.

When dealing with returned buffers, it's a good idea for the caller to get it's own local copy, so rather than depending on the scope of a static variable in another function, do something like this:

Code:

---

int main(int argv, char **argc)
{
  char buf[255];

  strcpy(buf, yourReadFunction());
   
  if(*buf==NULL){
      printf("Read Function failed\n");
      return 0;
  }
  //continue processing buf[]...

return 0;
}

---

Don't copy/paste any of this code and it expect it to run without errors, none of it has been checked/compiled, it's just to give you some ideas.
.

Thank you so much for that code. It's so helpful.