Can I pass a string into fopen()? in c - c

Question

My goal is to gather input and open files based on that input.
FILE*
open_input_file (char* fileName) //opens source file to be read
{
return fopen(fileName, "r");
}
In an earlier function, I collect input from the user and save it to fileName. When I debug the program, it tells me fopen is returning NULL. That's not what I want, and I'm not sure where the problem is.
int main(void)
{ FILE* inFile = NULL;
char infileName[32] = {'\0'};
gather_input(infileName); // infileName is an output parameter for this
inFile = open_input_file(infileName);
}
I don't know what the problem is. Any thoughts?

Answer 1

If fopen returns NULL, the open failed. errno will hold the failure code and strerror(errno) will return a short description of why the open failed.
#include <errno.h>
#include <string.h>
...
int main(void)
{ FILE* inFile = NULL;
char infileName[32] = {'\0'};
gather_input(infileName); // infileName is an output parameter for this
if (!(inFile = open_input_file(infileName))) {
fprintf(stderr, "Error opening '%s': %s\n",
infileName, strerror(errno));
} else {
// open successful
...
}
}
Off-topic
gather_input better make sure infileName is null-terminated to prevent buffer overflows. The simplest way to do this is to define the size of the file name buffer as a macro and set the last character to 0.
#define FILENAMELEN 32
void gather_input(char infileName[]) {
...
infileName[FILENAMELEN-1]=0;
}
int main(void)
{ FILE* inFile = NULL;
char infileName[FILENAMELEN] = {'\0'};
This isn't very flexible. You could instead pass the size of the file name buffer into gather_input.
#define LENGTH(a) (sizeof(a) / sizeof(a[0]))
void gather_input(char infileName[], size_t len) {
...
infileName[len-1]=0;
}
int main(void)
{ FILE* inFile = NULL;
char infileName[32] = {'\0'};
gather_input(infileName, LENGTH(infileName)); // infileName is an output parameter for this
An alternative to setting the last character, if using standard string manipulation functions, is to use the strl* functions (strlcpy and strlcat) rather than their unbounded cousins. If you aren't using strl*, you should be using strncpy and strncat.

Answer 2

Have you checked that the file pointed to by inFilename exists on your HDD ?
Check the value of infileName in your debugger or put a printf statement to show the value on screen. printf("'%s'\n", infileName);
Did you call fclose() on your file inside the open_input_file() call. Maybe the file is still locked ?
Edit: I just checked the code. I have modified your english_to_morse() function. 1. The while statement is easier to follow than the for. 2. fgetc() returns an int and not a char.
At the top of the initialise I added this. This initialises every string in the array with and undefined string of ".??.". This will make it easier to find strange bugs as everything in your array is at least initialised.
I have modified different sections of the code but you should be able to follow.
initialize_morse_alphanum (char morseStrings[91][6])
{
for (int i=0;i<91;i++)
strcpy(morseStrings[i], ".??.");
....
....
void
english_to_morse(FILE* inputFile, FILE* outputFile, char morseStrings[91][6])
{ int convert;
convert = fgetc(inputFile);
while (convert != EOF)
{
fputs(morseStrings[convert], outputFile);
fputc(' ', outputFile);
printf ("%s ", morseStrings[convert]);
convert = fgetc(inputFile);
}
}
open_output_file (char* fileName) //opens destination file to be written
{ FILE* handle = NULL;
handle = fopen (fileName, "w"); <---- Remove the * from filename
return handle; }
Also, as mentioned in a different answer, it would be good to add some bounds checks to different areas of the code. At the moment it is quite prone to crashing. If my input file contains a lowercase 'a' (ascii 96) your program will be accessing memory that is out of bounds. So you should add a line like if (convert >= '0' && convert <= 'Z') in there somewhere. I will let you work that out.

Answer 3

Make sure that gather_input works properly. Could it be a problem because you're trying to read a file you're also writing on? In this case, try to close and open again the stream.