Cant scan file in C - c

Question

I am cant seem to get my simple script to read the file. All i am trying to do is read letters into an array. I just get random characters and it is driving me crazy. I have the file in the Debug folder, what else can go wrong? I am 100 percent sure everything is correct.
Here is my code:
FILE * ifp;
ifp = fopen("letters.txt", "r");
int i;
int bound = 20;
char data[20];
for(i =0; i<bound; i++){
fscanf(ifp, "%s", &data[1]);
if (ifp == NULL){
return;
}
printf("Data %d = %c\n", i, data[i]);
}

Answer 1

The following code
1) checks for errors
2) compiles cleanly
3) works on a test.txt file I produced.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#define bound (20)
int main( void )
{
FILE * ifp;
if( NULL == (ifp = fopen("letters.txt", "r") ) )
{ // then, fopen failed
perror( "fopen for letters.txt failed");
exit( EXIT_FAILURE );
}
// implied else, fopen successful
int i;
char data[bound];
for(i =0; i<bound; i++)
{
if( 1 != fscanf(ifp, "%c", &data[i]) )
{ // then fscanf failed
perror( "fscanf failed" );
exit( EXIT_FAILURE );
}
// implied else, fscanf successful
printf("Data %d = %c\n", i, data[i]);
}
return(0);
} // end function: main

Answer 2

Hmm could it be because
&data[1]
should be just
data
or the equivalent
&data[0]
which is likely what you intended.
?
Only other reason I can think of is, the line you are reading is greater than 20 characters and its overflowing the data array.
Have a look at this example: http://www.tutorialspoint.com/c_standard_library/c_function_fscanf.htm

Answer 3

Here's an example:
#include <stdio.h>
#define MAX_LINES 10
#define MAX_LINE 80
#define FILE_NAME "lines.txt"
int
main (int argc, char *argv[])
{
char lines[MAX_LINES][MAX_LINE];
FILE *fp;
int i = 0;
if (!(fp = fopen(FILE_NAME, "r"))) {
perror ("file open error");
return 1;
}
while (i < MAX_LINES) {
if (fgets (lines[i], MAX_LINE, fp)) {
printf ("Line[%d]=%s", i, lines[i]);
i++;
} else {
printf ("End of file: closing %s\n", FILE_NAME);
break;
}
}
fclose (fp);
return 0;
}
Sample output:
$ gcc -o x1 -Wall -pedantic -g x1.c
$ ./x1
Line[0]=Come and listen to my story
Line[1]='Bout a man named Jed
Line[2]=Poor mountaineer,barely kept his fam'ly fed
End of file: closing lines.txt
Note:
We're reading a line at a time
We're reading each line into an array
We define the #/elements in the array (MAX_LINES) and the maximum size of each string (MAX_LINE) ahead of time
We check for "file open error" (and return "non-zero" accordingly)
We use "fgets()" to safely read a line (without risking a buffer overrun).
If you wanted to read a character at a time, the program could be as simple as:
char string[MAX_LINE], *c;
...
if (!(fp = fopen(FILE_NAME, "r"))) {
perror ("file open error");
return 1;
}
...
c = string;
while ((*c = fgetc (fp)) != EOF)
c++;
One problem with the second example is that it doesn't check for string length >> MAX_LINE. But hopefully it helps give you some ideas...