Ho to copy text from one file to another in C? - c

Question

I am writing a basic program to copy text to another text file. But in the console window after entering the filename from where text should be taken, the program ends and does not go further. How can I solve this problem?
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
int main(void) {
char filename1, filename2;
FILE *infile;
FILE *outfile;
printf("Enter a data file name:");
scanf("%s", filename1);
infile = fopen("filename1", "r");
printf("Enter a input file name:");
scanf("%s", filename2);
outfile = fopen("filename2", "w");
if (infile == NULL || outfile == NULL) {
printf("Problem in opening files");
exit(0);
}
printf("files opened successfully");
char characters;
do {
characters = getc(infile);
fprintf(outfile,"%s", characters);
printf("%s", characters);
} while (!feof(infile));
fclose(infile);
fclose(outfile);
return 0;
}

Answer 1

There are a few problems with your program:
You are using char variables to hold names of files. These variables should be char arrays or pointers to the first char of some allocated memory.
fopen("filename2", "w") seems wrong. Although, the first argument should be a char *, you are not reading / writing the files you just asked the user to enter.
fprintf(outfile,"%s",characters) - You are using %s to print characters. This will invoke UB.
char characters - The last character of a file, the EOF character is guaranteed to fit in an int. The characters variable should be declared as an int so that it can hold the EOF character.
Here is the program that works:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
int main(void) {
char filename1[10], filename2[10];
FILE *infile;
FILE *outfile;
printf("Enter a data file name:");
scanf("%s",filename1);
infile = fopen(filename1, "r");
printf("Enter a input file name:");
scanf("%s",filename2);
outfile = fopen(filename2, "w");
if (infile==NULL || outfile==NULL) {
printf("Problem in opening files");
exit(0);
}
printf("files opened successfully");
int characters;
/*do {
characters=getc(infile);
fprintf(outfile,"%s",characters);
printf("%s",characters);
} while(!feof(infile));
*/
while ((characters = getc(infile)) != EOF) {
fprintf(outfile, "%c", characters);
printf("%c", characters);
}
fclose(infile);
fclose(outfile);
return 0;
}

Answer 2

There are a number of issues.
char filename1, filename2;
This only allows filename1 and filename2 to hold a single char - not a C string. You need to reserve memory as a char array. Like:
char filename1[64], filename2[64]; // Allow 63 chars for file name
Then
scanf("%s",filename1);
is really bad as it allows the user to overflow your input buffers. Consider using fgets or at least do:
scanf("%63s",filename1); // Limit user input to 63 chars as the buffer is 64
// The "last" char is for the string termination
Then the loop:
First, characters shall be int so that you can check for EOF. Further, check directly on getc instead of using feof. And don't use %s for printing a single char to the output file - use %c. Like
int characters;
while(1) {
characters=getc(infile);
if (characters == EOF) break; // Break (aka jump out of the loop) on
// end-of-file or errors
fprintf(outfile,"%c",characters); // %c instead of %s
// or use: putc(characters, outfile)
// instead of fprintf
printf("%s",characters);
}