fread() and fwrite() - not working with gcc

Hello All,
I am trying to use fread and fwrite in my program to be compiled using gcc. I searched several forums but have no clue why neither of fread and fwrite work for me. Although no errors are shown and the fopen works well, reading or writing does not happen. Even a small code that i copied and pasted from a tutorials site on C-file I/O is not working!!

Code:

---

#include<stdio.h>
 
int main()
{
  FILE *f;
  int buf;
  f = fopen("aout.txt","wb");
  buf = 100;
  fwrite(&buf,sizeof(buf),1,f);
  fclose(f);
  return 0;
}

---

In the tutorials site, the output file extension was .dat, however since linux doesnt recognize that, i am using .txt. Is this allowed?
Can anyone tell me what am i missing in the code or any package to be installed? I am using Ubuntu 11.04.

Thanks
anand

File extensions mean nothing. You can make your file called whatever you want. It's how you open the file that matters -- and actually, since you are in *nix, there is probably no difference between text and binary modes. It only matters how you read and write.


Quzah.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by senartcon

Although no errors are shown and the fopen works well, reading or writing does not happen.

---

Check that fopen does not return a null pointer, and the return value of fwrite.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by senartcon

In the tutorials site, the output file extension was .dat, however since linux doesnt recognize that, i am using .txt. Is this allowed?

---

It is certainly allowed, but the notion that Linux does not recognise ".dat" is not quite right. You could have gone with ".dat" if you wished. The recognition of file extensions is by convention, so in that sense ".dat" is not recognised, but then it certainly is allowed.

Try running this code and then find your file "aout.txt" and open it. You will most likely see the letter 'A'.

Code:

---

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

int main(void){

        FILE *fp=NULL;
        int x=65;

        fp=fopen("aout.txt","wb");
        if(!fp)
                exit(1);

        fwrite(&x,sizeof(x),1,fp);
        fclose(fp);

        return(0);
}

---

Minor addition to Andrew's code, that might produce some extra info that will help us:

Code:

---

fp = fopen("aout.txt", "wb");
if (!fp) {
    perror("fopen failed");
    exit(1);
}

if (fwrite(&x, sizeof(x), 1, fp) != 1) {
    perror("fwrite failed");
}

---

The real question as to whether it worked or not is, do you see a 4 or 8 byte file when you do
ls -l aout.txt
at the command prompt?

If you get No such file or directory, then it plainly did not work.

Now if you try to open this ".txt" file in a text editor, you're not going to see "100", but probably just a 'd' (that being the ASCII character of decimal 100).

If you want to see "100" in your .txt file, then use fprintf, not fwrite.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Salem

If you want to see "100" in your .txt file, then use fprintf, not fwrite.

---

Or use

Code:

---

od -i aout.txt

---

to display the file...

Thanks all of you!

AndrewHunter and anduril462 :

I ran your code: got no errors and got "A" but only in emacs and could not open the result in gedit (text editor in ubuntu); gedit shows the following error:

Could not revert the file /home.../aout.txt.
Unexpected error: Invalid UTF-8 sequence in input

The file size of aout.txt was 4 bytes

Salem :
yes, when i opened the result of my original code, buf=100; i got "d"
and once again yes, the codes works well with printf and scanf (for any number of data points).
However I was recommended that fread and fwrite are robust for "data" files.

Talking of fread alone, in the code below, running at terminal i get the output:

read one
0.0000

which looks like fread is reading but dont know whether it has read it properly!

Code:

---

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

int main(void){

    FILE *fp1;
    float x;

    fp1 = fopen("ain", "rb");  //ain has a value 1.234 typed in

    if(fread(&x,sizeof(x),1,fp1)==1)
    printf("read one \n");

  printf("%f \n",x);

    fclose(fp1);
    return(0);
}

---

If you just opened up a text file and typed in "1.234", then that's not going to correctly represent a float with fread. You should be using fscanf. Believe it or not, different IO methods have different functionality.


Quzah.

Ok guys, here is the code working finally!!

Code:

---

#include <stdio.h>

main(){

    FILE *fp1,*fp2;
    float y;

    fp1 = fopen("ain.txt", "rb");
    fp2 = fopen("aout.txt","wb");
   
    while(fread(&y,sizeof(y),1,fp1)==1)
    fwrite(&y,sizeof(y),1,fp2);

    fclose(fp1);
    fclose(fp2);
}

---

Inputs like this were outputted exactly the same way (in aout.txt)

Code:

---

1    1.2    1.23    1.234    1.2345
2    2.3    2.34    2.345    2.3456
3    3.4    3.45    3.456    3.4567
4    4.5    4.56    4.567    4.5678
5    5.6    5.67    5.678    5.6789
6    6.7    6.78    6.789    6.79
....

---

Now i have the following trouble:
How do i get those numbers from aout.txt into the variables of structure elements? I tried with a little modification (code below), but it did not work.. I am getting random values. Any ideas, pls..!

Code:

---

#include <stdio.h>

main()
{
    FILE *fp;
    struct data {
        int x1;
        float x2;
        float x3;
        float x4;   
    } y[10];

    fp1 = fopen("aout.txt","rb");

    int i = 0;
    while(fread(&y[i],sizeof(y[i]),1,fp)==1)
    {

printf("\n%d %f %f %f",y[i].x1,y[i].x2,y[i].x3,y[i].x4);
 i++;

    }
    printf("\n");
    fclose(fp);
}

---

Thanks
anand

The first sample code does not produce the output you think you have produced (even if we ignore the whole text/binary difference, and assume you were showing us text as an illustration). You aren't writing line numbers or whatever that first column is. All you are doing is writing floating point numbers one after the other. There aren't any line breaks or anything.

The only way your second program is going to work is if you are flat-writing full structures, the same way you wrote floats earlier. Is that what you meant by this:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by you

Inputs like this were outputted exactly the same way (in aout.txt)

---

If not, then you should do something like this:

Code:

---

while not done
    fread integer into array[ x ].int
    fread float into array[ x ].float1
    ...
    fread float into array[ x ].floatN

---

If you wrote them out one at a time, and not as an entire structure, then you need to read them one at a time. If you wrote an entire structure at a time, then you need to read an entire structure at a time. (Assuming this file was written on the same machine it's being read on.)


Quzah.

1) you need to check the return from fopen() and make sure the file is *actually* open.
2) You can't read text files with fread() ... that's for binary data.
3) To read the file as text into floats you need fscanf()
4) it's not main() ... it's int main (void)
5) main() returns an errorlevel to the OS on exit... at minimum return 0;

All of which you've already been told at least once before in this thread...
What's the point of asking a question then ignoring the answers?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by CommonTater

1) you need to check the return from fopen() and make sure the file is *actually* open.
2) You can't read text files with fread() ... that's for binary data.
3) To read the file as text into floats you need fscanf()
4) it's not main() ... it's int main (void)
5) main() returns an errorlevel to the OS on exit... at minimum return 0;

All of which you've already been told at least once before in this thread...
What's the point of asking a question then ignoring the answers?

---

SORRY for annoying you all guys. The above points are a real eye opener for me. I got it and i will shut up with fprintf and fscanf.
Thanks to all...take care.. :)

anand