16

Files

16.1 Introduction
At times it is required to store data on hard disk or floppy disk in some application
program. The data is stored in these devices using the concept of file.

16.2 Objectives
After going through this lesson, you would be able to:
l store data in a file

l access data record by record from the file

l move pointer within the file

l open or close file

16.3 File
A file is a collection of logically related records. A program usually requires two
types of data communication.

(i) Writing data on the datafile:

The data flows from keyboard to memory and from memory to storage device.

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keyboard —> memory —> hard disk/floppydisk

This is called output stream where stream is the flow of data and requires an
ofstream.h header file.

(ii) Reading data from datafile:

The data flows from storage device to memory and from memory to output device,
particularly monitor.

datafile —> memory — > output device (screen)

external storage

device

(hard disk/floppy)

This is called input stream and requires ifstream.h header file.

If both input stream and output stream are used in the same program then header
file fstream.h is required.

If header file fstream.h is included in the program, there is no need to include

iostream.h explicitly.

16.3.1 Opening a file

A file can be opened in two ways:

(i) using constructor function of a class.

(ii) using the member function open ( ) of the class.

Opening a file using constructor function

The following statement opens the file STU.DAT in output mode, i.e., for writing data
on the file.

ofstream outfile (“STU.DAT”);

ofstream is a class available in the compiler file.

outfile is any user defined object.

The statements

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outfile < < “TOTAL MARKS” << “\n”;

outfile < < total << “\n”;

are used for writing data on the file. The newline character is used for moving the
pointer to the next line.

Similarly, the following statement

ifstream infile (“STU.DAT”);

opens the file “STU.DAT” in input mode, i.e., for reading purpose

The statements

infile >> string;

infile >> number;

read the data from the data file.

The following program uses a single file for both writing and reading purposes. First,
it takes the data form the keyboard and writes it to the file. After the writing is
completed, the file is closed. The program again opens the same file, reads the
information already written to it and displays it on the screen.

# include < fstream.h >

void main ( )
{ char name [30];
int rn, marks;
ofstream outfile ( “INF”);
cout << “Enter student name”;
cin >> name;
cout << “Enter student roll number”;
cin >> rn;
cout << “Enter student marks”;
cin >> marks;
outfile << name << “\n”;
outfile << rn << “\n”;
outfile << marks << “\n”;
outfile . close ( );

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ifstream infile ( “INF” );

infile >> name;
infile >> rn;
infile >> marks;
cout << “Name” << name << “\n”;
cout << “Roll no” << rn << “\n”;
cout << “Marks” << marks << “\n”;
infile close ( );
}

The output of the program would be:

Enter student name PARAM
Enter student roll number 20
Enter student marks 90
Name PARAM
Roll No. 20
Marks 90

Opening a file using open ( ) function

The function open ( ) can be used to multiple files that use the same stream object.
First a stream object is assigned to and then it is used to open the file in turn.

filestream_class stream_object;
stream_object . open (“filename”);

For example :

ofstream outfile;
outfile . open (“ABC”);
_____
outfile . close ( );
outfile . open (“XYZ”);
_____
outfile.close ( );

16.3.2 Open ( ) Function

The open ( ) function has two parameters : filename and access mode. The general

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format is:

stream_object . open (“filename”, access mode);

The second argument specifies the mode in which the file is opened. The default
values are taken for ifstream or ofstream functions. (the mode is not defined
explicitly).

ios : : in for ifstream functions

ios : : out for ofstream functions

The file mode parameters can take one or more of the constants defined in the
class ios. The following table shows the file mode parameters.

Parameter Meaning

ios : : app It opens the file in output mode. The file

pointer is at the end of file and it can add
a record.

ios :: ate The file pointer is at the end of the file

and it allows to add data or to modify the
existing data anywhere in the file.

ios :: binary Binary file

ios :: in It opens the file in input mode. The file

pointer is at the top of the file and it is
ready for reading.

ios :: nocreate If file is already present, it opens the file

otherwise open fails.

ios :: noreplace If file is not present, it opens the file

otherwise open statement fails.

ios :: out It opens the file in output mode. The file

pointer is at the end of the file. If it already
has a data, the output mode erases the
content of the file.

ios :: trunc It deletes the contents of the file if exist.

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The mode can combine two or more parameters using bitwise OR opertor.

Example:

outfile . open (“ABC”, ios::in l ios::out l ios :: binary);

16.3.3 File Pointers

File has two associated pointers called input pointer (or get pointer) and output
pointer (or put pointer). Each time an input or output operation takes place, the
pointer moves automatically. There are two pointers.

seekg ( ) It moves get pointer to a specified location.

seekp ( ) It moves the put pointer to a specified location.

A file can be viewed as

ios :: beg ios :: cur ios :: end

ios :: beg means start of the file

ios :: cur means current position of the pointer
ios :: end means end of the file

The seekg ( ) and seekp ( ) statement has two parameters.

object . seekg (no. of bytes, refposition);

object . seekp (no. of bytes, refpostion);

The refposition takes one of the above three constants defined in the ios class.

Example 1

infile.seekg (0, ios::beg);

It moves the pointer to the beginning of the file. In this case, the refposition ios ::
beg is optional.

infile.seekg ( 100, ios::cur);

It moves the pointer 100 bytes forward from the current position.

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infile.seekg (-200, ios::end);

It moves the pointer 200 bytes backward from the end of the file.

16.3.4 The tellg ( ) and tellp ( ) function

The tellg ( ) function gives the position of get pointer in terms of number of bytes.
Similarly, tellp ( ) function gives the position of put pointer in terms of bytes.

Example 2

ifstream infile;

infile . open ( “ABC”, ios ::ate);

int B = infile . tellg ( );

On execution of the above statements, the input pointer is moved to the end of the
file and B gives the number of bytes in the file.

16.3.5 Write ( ) and read ( ) functions

The functions write ( ) and read ( ) has two parameters: address of the variable, size
of the variable. The address of the variable must be cast to the type char*. The
general format is:

infile . read ( (char*) & v, sizeof v);

outfile . write ( (char*) & v, sizeof v);

where v is the variable.

16.3.6 Close ( ) function

The file should be closed at the end if it is opened either through constructor or open
( ) function. The General format is stream_object.close ( );

The following example works with class object and does the following operations:

l Create a data file

l Display a data file
l Adding a new record
l Modify the existing record

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Example 3

# include <fstream.h>
class student
{
char name [30];
int rn;
public:
void getdata ( );
void putdata ( );
};
void student : : getdata ( )
{
cout <<“Enter student name”;
cin >> name;
cout << “Enter roll number”;
cin >> rn;
}
void student :: putdata ( )
{
cout << “Student name” << name << “\n”;
cout << “Student roll number” << rn << “\n”;
}
void main ( )
{
fstream file;
file . open ( “ABC”, ios::in l ios::out l ios::binary);
student st;
/ / create a data file
int i, n;
cout << “How many record to enter”;
cin >> n;
for (i = 1; i < = n, i ++ )
{
st. getdata ( );

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file . write ((char*) & st, sizeof st);

}
/ / Display a data file
file . seekg ( 0, ios::beg);
while (file . read ((char*) & st, sizeof st))
{
st. putdata ( );
}
file . clear ( ) / / To make the end of file mark false
/ / To append record
st . getdata ( );
file . write ((char*) & st, sizeof st);
/ / To modify a record
file.clear ( );
cout << “Enter record number”;
cin >> n;
file . seekp ((n - 1)* sizeof st, ios::beg);
st. getdata ( );
file.write ((char*) & st, sizeof st);
/ / To close a file
file . close ( );
}

In-Text Questions 16.1

1. What is file?

2. What is the difference between ios::ate and ios::app modes?

3. What are the two file pointers?

4. The ios::out mode is ios::trunc mode by default. True or false.

5. What is the significance of tellg ( ) function?

6. Fill in the blanks:

(a) A............................. is a colloction of logically related records.

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(b) The file open in ofstream is only available for ...........................

(c) The file open in ifstream is only available for ..................................

(d) We can open the file using ............................... function.

(e) The mode app opens the file for ..............................

(f) The file open in output mode is ....................... by default.

7. State whether the following are True or False.

(a) A file is a collection of record.

(b) The file open in ofstream is available for writing.

(c) The output mode of opening a file deletes the contents, if present in the
file.

(d) The close ( ) function is used to close a file.

(e) The statement

outfile.write ((char*) & obj, sizeof obj);

writes only data in obj to outfile.

(f) The ios::ate mode allow us to write data at the end the file only.

(g) We can add data to an existing file by opening in append mode.

(h) The data written to a file with write ( ) function can be read with the get
( ) function.

16.4 What you have learnt

In this lesson you learnt about the file programming which is a very important aspect
of any language. We have provided you with examples that will help you in writing
programs using files.

16.5 Terminal Questions

1. What are input and output stream?

2. What is the difference between opening a file with constructor function and

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opening a file with open () function?

3. What is the file access mode? Describe the various file modes.

4. A file consists of 5 records, each takes 100 bytes of storage:

fstream file:

file. seekg ( 0, ios::end);

N = file.tellg ( );

(i) What will be the datatype of N?

(ii) What will be the value of N?

5. Consider the following statements:

fstream file;
file.open (“ABC”, ios::in l ios::out);
Write C++ statement(s) for the following:
(i) To move the pointer at the beginning of file.
(ii) To move the pointer at the end of file.
(iii) To find the total number of bytes.
(iv) To close the file.

6. Explain the functioning of the following:

fstream file;
(i) file.seekg (100, ios::cur);
(ii) file.seekg (-100, ios::end);
(iii) file.seekg ( 100, ios::beg);

7. The record consists of two fields: name and rollno. Write a program that will
perform the following:

(i) create a data file of 5 records

(ii) display a data file
(iii) append a record
(iv) modify one of the records

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16.6 Feedback to In-Text Questions

In-text Questions 16.1

1. It is a group of logically related records.

2. The ios::ate mode can add or modify an existing record whereas ios::app
mode can only add records.

3. put and get

4. True

5. It gives the position of get pointer in terms of bytes.

6. (a) file
(b) output
(c) input
(d) open
(e) output
(f) trunc

7. (a) T
(b) T
(c) T
(d) T
(e) T
(f) F
(g) T
(h) F

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