Golang How to read input filename in Go - file

Question

I would like to run my go file on my input.txt where my go program will read the input.txt file when I type in go run command ie:
go run goFile.go input.txt
I don't want to put input.txt in my goFile.go code since my go file should run on any input name not just input.txt.
I try ioutil.ReadAll(os.Stdin) but I need to change my command to
go run goFile.go < input.txt
I only use package fmt, os, bufio and io/ioutil. Is it possible to do it without any other packages?

Answer 1

Please take a look at the package documentation of io/ioutil which you are already using.
It has a function exactly for this: ReadFile()
func ReadFile(filename string) ([]byte, error)
Example usage:
func main() {
// First element in os.Args is always the program name,
// So we need at least 2 arguments to have a file name argument.
if len(os.Args) < 2 {
fmt.Println("Missing parameter, provide file name!")
return
}
data, err := ioutil.ReadFile(os.Args[1])
if err != nil {
fmt.Println("Can't read file:", os.Args[1])
panic(err)
}
// data is the file content, you can use it
fmt.Println("File content is:")
fmt.Println(string(data))
}

Answer 2

Firs you check for the provided argument. If the first argument satisfy the condition of an input file, then you use the ioutil.ReadFile method, providing parameter the os.Args result.
package main
import (
"fmt"
"os"
"io/ioutil"
)
func main() {
if len(os.Args) < 1 {
fmt.Println("Usage : " + os.Args[0] + " file name")
os.Exit(1)
}
file, err := ioutil.ReadFile(os.Args[1])
if err != nil {
fmt.Println("Cannot read the file")
os.Exit(1)
}
// do something with the file
fmt.Print(string(file))
}
Another possibility is to use:
f, err := os.Open(os.Args[0])
but for this you need to provide the bytes lenght to read:
b := make([]byte, 5) // 5 is the length
n, err := f.Read(b)
fmt.Printf("%d bytes: %s\n", n, string(b))

Answer 3

For running .go file from command-line by input parameter like file (for example abc.txt).We need use mainly os, io/ioutil, fmt packages. Additionally for reading command line parameters we use
os.Args Here is example code
package main
import (
"fmt"
"os"
"io/ioutil"
)
func main() {
fmt.Println(" Hi guys ('-') ")
input_files := os.Args[1:]
//input_files2 := os.Args[0];
//fmt.Println("if2 : ",input_files2)
if len(input_files) < 1{
fmt.Println("Not detected files.")
}else{
fmt.Println("File_name is : ",input_files[0])
content, err := ioutil.ReadFile(input_files[0])
if err != nil {
fmt.Println("Can't read file :", input_files[0],"Error : ",err)
}else {
fmt.Println("Output file content is(like string type) : \n",string(content))//string Output
fmt.Println("Output file content is(like byte type) : \n",content)//bytes Output
}
}
}
Args holds command line arguments, including the command as Args[0].
If the Args field is empty or nil, Run uses {Path}.
In typical use, both Path and Args are set by calling Command.
Args []string
function. This function return back array on string type https://golang.org/pkg/os/exec/.Args hold the command-line arguments, starting with the program name. In this case short way to take filename from command-line is this functions os.Args[1:] . And here is output
elshan_abd$ go run main.go abc.txt
Hi guys ('-')
File_name is : abc.txt
Output file content is(like string type) :
aaa
bbb
ccc
1234
Output file content is(like byte type) :
[97 97 97 10 98 98 98 10 99 99 99 10 49 50 51 52 10]
Finally we need for reading content file this function
func ReadFile(filename string) ([]byte, error) source is https://golang.org/pkg/io/ioutil/#ReadFile