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    of 5

    30.

    Files and Streams C++

    So far, we have been using the iostream standard library, which provides cin and cout
    methods for reading from standard input and writing to standard output respectively.

    This tutorial will teach you how to read and write from a file. This requires another standard
    C++ library called fstream, which defines three new data types:

    Data Type Description

    ofstream This data type represents the output file stream and is used
    to create files and to write information to files.

    ifstream This data type represents the input file stream and is used to
    read information from files.

    fstream This data type represents the file stream generally, and has
    the capabilities of both ofstream and ifstream which means
    it can create files, write information to files, and read
    information from files.

    To perform file processing in C++, header files <iostream> and <fstream> must be
    included in your C++ source file.

    Opening a File
    A file must be opened before you can read from it or write to it. Either ofstream or
    fstream object may be used to open a file for writing. And ifstream object is used to open
    a file for reading purpose only.

    Following is the standard syntax for open() function, which is a member of fstream,
    ifstream, and ofstream objects.

    void open(const char *filename, ios::openmode mode);

    Here, the first argument specifies the name and location of the file to be opened and the
    second argument of the open() member function defines the mode in which the file should
    be opened.

    Mode Flag Description

    ios::app Append mode. All output to that file to be appended to the


    end.

    219
    C++

    ios::ate Open a file for output and move the read/write control to the
    end of the file.

    ios::in Open a file for reading.

    ios::out Open a file for writing.

    ios::trunc If the file already exists, its contents will be truncated before
    opening the file.

    You can combine two or more of these values by ORing them together. For example if you
    want to open a file in write mode and want to truncate it in case that already exists,
    following will be the syntax:

    ofstream outfile;
    outfile.open("file.dat", ios::out | ios::trunc );

    Similar way, you can open a file for reading and writing purpose as follows:

    fstream afile;
    afile.open("file.dat", ios::out | ios::in );

    Closing a File
    When a C++ program terminates it automatically flushes all the streams, release all the
    allocated memory and close all the opened files. But it is always a good practice that a
    programmer should close all the opened files before program termination.

    Following is the standard syntax for close() function, which is a member of fstream,
    ifstream, and ofstream objects.

    void close();

    Writing to a File
    While doing C++ programming, you write information to a file from your program using
    the stream insertion operator (<<) just as you use that operator to output information to
    the screen. The only difference is that you use an ofstream or fstream object instead of
    the cout object.

    Reading from a File


    You read information from a file into your program using the stream extraction operator
    (>>) just as you use that operator to input information from the keyboard. The only
    difference is that you use an ifstream or fstream object instead of the cin object.

    220
    C++

    Read & Write Example


    Following is the C++ program which opens a file in reading and writing mode. After writing
    information entered by the user to a file named afile.dat, the program reads information
    from the file and outputs it onto the screen:

    #include <fstream>
    #include <iostream>
    using namespace std;

    int main ()
    {

    char data[100];

    // open a file in write mode.


    ofstream outfile;
    outfile.open("afile.dat");

    cout << "Writing to the file" << endl;


    cout << "Enter your name: ";
    cin.getline(data, 100);

    // write inputted data into the file.


    outfile << data << endl;

    cout << "Enter your age: ";


    cin >> data;
    cin.ignore();

    // again write inputted data into the file.


    outfile << data << endl;

    // close the opened file.


    outfile.close();

    // open a file in read mode.


    ifstream infile;
    infile.open("afile.dat");
    221
    C++

    cout << "Reading from the file" << endl;


    infile >> data;

    // write the data at the screen.


    cout << data << endl;

    // again read the data from the file and display it.
    infile >> data;
    cout << data << endl;

    // close the opened file.


    infile.close();

    return 0;
    }

    When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following sample input
    and output:

    $./a.out
    Writing to the file
    Enter your name: Zara
    Enter your age: 9
    Reading from the file
    Zara
    9

    Above examples make use of additional functions from cin object, like getline() function
    to read the line from outside, and ignore() function to ignore the extra characters left by
    previous read statement.

    File Position Pointers


    Both istream and ostream provide member functions for repositioning the file-position
    pointer. These member functions are seekg ("seek get") for istream and seekp ("seek
    put") for ostream.

    The argument to seekg and seekp normally is a long integer. A second argument can be
    specified to indicate the seek direction. The seek direction can be ios::beg (the default)
    for positioning relative to the beginning of a stream, ios::cur for positioning relative to the
    current position in a stream or ios::end for positioning relative to the end of a stream.

    222
    C++

    The file-position pointer is an integer value that specifies the location in the file as a
    number of bytes from the file's starting location. Some examples of positioning the "get"
    file-position pointer are:

    // position to the nth byte of fileObject (assumes ios::beg)


    fileObject.seekg( n );

    // position n bytes forward in fileObject


    fileObject.seekg( n, ios::cur );

    // position n bytes back from end of fileObject


    fileObject.seekg( n, ios::end );

    // position at end of fileObject


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

    223

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