File Handling

File Handling

è    The process of accessing a file from memory is known as file handling.

è    File handling is also known as File Input/Output(I/O).

è    File handling process includes following operations.

1.     Naming a file. 

2.     Opening a file

3.     Reading data from a file.

4.     Writing data a file.

5.     Closing a file.

è    To access any file need to declare a pointer to FILE structure and then associate it with the particular file. This pointer is referred as a file pointer and declared  as follow:

                                      FILE *ptr_var_name;

File Structure

To store data in a file in the secondary memory , need to specify certain things about the file , to the operating system. They include :

1.                                                                       File name

2.                                                                       Data structure

3.                                                                       Purpose

Here,

File name is a string of characters that make up a valid filename for the operating system. It contains two parts , a primary name and an optional period with extension

Ex,  xyz.txt

      Digit.c

      Name

Data structure of a file is defined as FILE in the library of standard I/O function definitions. Therefore , all files should be declared as type FILE before they are used . FILE is a defined data type.

Purpose specifies that for which use file is opening , such as for reading, writing , appending etc .

Posted By : Ruchita Pandya