Reading information from text file in C - c

I'm new to C; please try to help me as much as you can.
I'm getting as arguments to main() pointers to files,
so in a for loop I fopen() them and want to send them to a function that will
read the text info inside them and put it in char variables.
Here is an example file:
#station name
Station Name : A1
#octan of fuel 6.54 full service price 6.40 self service
Octan95,6.54,6.40
Octan98,8.30,8.15
#carNum,Octan,numOfLiters,Kind of service
22-334-55,95,31.3,FullService
22-334-55,95,31.3,SelfService
11-444-77,95,12,FullService
11-444-77,95,44.1,FullService
11-444-77,95,11.22,SelfService
The text has fields separated with commas, and I need the information between those commas to be added to vars.
What will be the best way or function to read these text files?
Also should I expect '\n' after each line or will it stream as one big char[] without the new line character?

read file line by line
use strtok function to get everything in between commas

read file line by line and use sscanf with return-value to get everything in between commas

Some 200 lines of code later...and using a slightly modified version of your data file (note that the second header line in the original is missing all the commas):
#include <assert.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <stdarg.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
/*
** Example data:
**
** #station name
** Station Name : A1
** #octan of fuel,full service price,self service price
** Octan95,6.54,6.40
** Octan98,8.30,8.15
** #carNum,Octan,numOfLiters,Kind of service
** 22-334-55,95,31.3,FullService
** 22-334-55,95,31.3,SelfService
** 11-444-77,95,12,FullService
** 11-444-77,95,44.1,FullService
** 11-444-77,95,11.22,SelfService
**
** - Header lines are followed by one or more data lines
** - Number of fields in header matches number of fields in each data line
** - Commas separate fields and do not appear within fields (not full CSV)
*/
/* A Line structure holds the fields for one line */
typedef struct Line
{
size_t num_fields;
char **fields;
} Line;
/* A Section structure holds the header line and the set of data lines */
typedef struct Section
{
size_t num_rows;
size_t num_cols;
Line header;
Line *lines; /* Array of lines - num_rows entries in array */
} Section;
/* An Info structure holds all the sections for a single file */
typedef struct Info
{
size_t num_sections;
Section *sections;
} Info;
static void err_exit(const char *format, ...)
{
va_list args;
va_start(args, format);
vfprintf(stderr, format, args);
va_end(args);
exit(1);
}
static void *xrealloc(void *old_data, size_t nbytes)
{
void *new_data = realloc(old_data, nbytes);
if (new_data == 0)
err_exit("Out of memory!\n");
return new_data;
}
static void *xmalloc(size_t nbytes)
{
void *new_data = malloc(nbytes);
if (new_data == 0)
err_exit("Out of memory!\n");
return new_data;
}
/* Duplicate a string of given length (excluding NUL) */
static char *xstrndup(const char *str, size_t len)
{
char *new_data = xmalloc(len+1);
memmove(new_data, str, len);
new_data[len] = '\0';
return new_data;
}
static void dump_line(FILE *fp, const Line * const line)
{
size_t i;
const char *pad = "";
for (i = 0; i < line->num_fields; i++)
{
fprintf(fp, "%s%*s", pad, 1, line->fields[i]);
pad = " ";
}
fputc('\n', fp);
}
static void dump_section(FILE *fp, const char *tag, const Section * const section)
{
if (tag != 0)
fprintf(fp, "Dump Section: %s\n", tag);
fprintf(fp, "Number of columns: %zd\n", section->num_cols);
fprintf(fp, "Number of lines: %zd\n", section->num_rows);
dump_line(fp, &section->header);
for (size_t i = 0; i < section->num_rows; i++)
dump_line(fp, &section->lines[i]);
}
static void dump_info(FILE *fp, const char *tag, const Info * const info)
{
size_t i;
fprintf(fp, "Dump Information: %s\n", tag);
fprintf(fp, "Number of sections: %zd\n", info->num_sections);
for (i = 0; i < info->num_sections; i++)
{
char title[20];
snprintf(title, sizeof(title), "%d", i+1);
dump_section(fp, title, &info->sections[i]);
}
fprintf(fp, "End of Information Dump\n");
}
static int num_fields(const char *buffer)
{
size_t posn = 0;
size_t next;
int count = 0;
while ((next = strcspn(buffer + posn, ",\n")) > 0)
{
count++;
if (buffer[posn+next] == '\n')
break;
posn += next + 1;
}
return count;
}
static void set_line(Line *line, int nfields, const char *buffer)
{
size_t posn = 0;
line->num_fields = nfields;
line->fields = xmalloc(nfields * sizeof(*line->fields));
for (int i = 0; i < nfields; i++)
{
size_t next = strcspn(buffer+posn, ",\n");
line->fields[i] = xstrndup(buffer+posn, next);
if (buffer[posn+next] == '\n')
{
if (i != nfields - 1)
err_exit("Internal error: field count mismatch\n");
break;
}
posn += next + 1;
}
}
static int add_section(Info *info, char *buffer)
{
int nfields = num_fields(buffer);
int nsections = info->num_sections + 1;
info->sections = xrealloc(info->sections, nsections * sizeof(*info->sections));
info->num_sections = nsections;
Section *new_section = &info->sections[nsections-1];
new_section->num_cols = nfields;
new_section->num_rows = 0;
set_line(&new_section->header, nfields, buffer);
new_section->lines = 0;
return nfields;
}
/* Beware - very compact code! */
static void add_line_to_section(Section *section, const char *buffer, int nfields)
{
section->lines = xrealloc(section->lines, (section->num_rows + 1) * sizeof(*section->lines));
set_line(&section->lines[section->num_rows++], nfields, buffer);
}
static int peek(FILE *fp)
{
int c;
if ((c = getc(fp)) != EOF)
ungetc(c, fp);
return c;
}
static void read_info(FILE *fp, Info *info)
{
char buffer[1024];
while (fgets(buffer, sizeof(buffer), fp) != 0)
{
if (*buffer != '#')
err_exit("Format error: expected line beginning '#' (got '%.*s')\n",
10, buffer);
int nfields = add_section(info, buffer+1);
int c;
Section *cursect = &info->sections[info->num_sections-1];
while ((c = peek(fp)) != EOF && c != '#')
{
if (fgets(buffer, sizeof(buffer), fp) != 0)
{
int lfields = num_fields(buffer);
if (lfields != nfields)
err_exit("Mismatch in number of fields (got %d, wanted %) at '%*s'\n",
lfields, nfields, 20, buffer);
add_line_to_section(cursect, buffer, nfields);
}
}
}
}
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
int i;
Info info = { 0, 0 };
for (i = 1; i < argc; i++)
{
FILE *fp;
if ((fp = fopen(argv[i], "r")) != 0)
{
read_info(fp, &info);
dump_info(stdout, "After loop", &info);
}
else
fprintf(stderr, "Failed to open file %s (%s)\n", argv[i], strerror(errno));
}
dump_info(stdout, "End of main loop", &info);
return 0;
}
The code is not optimal in most senses - it allocates far too many small bits of memory. I also got lazy and didn't write the code to free the memory. I don't think it would be a good idea to hand this in as your code, though.

Related

Allocate memory for big .txt file in C

I need to allocate memory using malloc or calloc, for a large file that looks like this:
2357 VKLYKK
7947 1WTFWZ
3102 F2IXK3
2963 EXMW55
2865 50CJES
2510 8PC1AI
There are around 10K of lines in that .txt file. How can I allocate the required memory?
What is the program supposed to do? The program has to read the whole .txt file. Sort it by the first number and send output to out.txt. But since the the input of the file is huge it won't let me.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#pragma warning(disable : 4996)
typedef struct {
int number;
char order[10];
} Data;
int sorting(const void *a, const void *b)
{
Data *dataA = (Data *)a;
Data *dataB = (Data *)b;
// return (dataA->number - dataB->number); // Ascending order
return (dataB->number - dataA->number); // Descending order
}
int main()
{
FILE *fp;
FILE *f = fopen("out.txt", "w");
Data data[20];
char *line[150]
int i = 0;
char file_name[10] = "";
printf("enter file name: ");
scanf("%s", &file_name);
fp = fopen(file_name, "r");
if (fp == NULL)
{
printf("\n%s\" File not found!", file_name);
exit(1);
}
while (1)
{
if (fgets(line, 150, fp) == NULL)
break;
char *pch;
pch = strtok(line, " ");
data[i].number = atoi(pch);
pch = strtok(NULL, " ");
strcpy(data[i].order, pch);
i++;
}
printf("#################\n");
printf("number\torder\n");
for (int k = 0; k < 10; k++)
{
printf("%d\t%s", data[k].number, data[k].order);
}
qsort(data, 10, sizeof(Data), sorting);
printf("\n#################\n");
printf("number\torder\n");
for (int k = 0; k < 10; k++)
{
printf("%d\t%s", data[k].number, data[k].order);
fprintf(f, "%d\t%s", data[k].number, data[k].order);
}
fclose(fp);
fclose(f);
return 0;
}
If your file contains 10,000 lines or so, your while loop will quickly overrun your data array (which you declared with only 20 elements). If the number of lines is not known in advance, the best way to do this is with a growing array. Start by initialing data (and new dataSize and dataCount variables) as follows:
int dataSize = 0;
int dataCount = 0;
Data *data = NULL;
Then as you use up the space in the array, when it reaches dataSize entries you will have to grow your array. Something like this:
while (1) {
if (dataCount >= dataSize) {
Data *new;
dataSize += 1000;
new = realloc(data,dataSize * sizeof *data);
if (new == NULL) {
perror("realloc");
free(data);
return 2;
}
data = new;
}
int cnt = fscanf(fp,"%d %9s", &data[dataCount].number, data[dataCount].order);
if (cnt == EOF)
break;
if (cnt != 2) {
printf("Error reading data\n");
return 1;
}
dataCount++;
}
When the while loop finishes (if there were no errors), the data array will contain all of the data, and dataCount will be the total number of data items found.
Note that I used fscanf instead of fgets, as this eliminates the need for intermediate step like calls to atoi and strcpy. I also put in some simple error checking. I chose 1000 as the growth increment, though you can change that. But too small and it fragments the heap more rapidly, and too big requires larger amounts of memory too quickly.
this line
char* line[150];
creates an array of 150 char pointers, this is not what you want if you are reading one line like this
if (fgets(line, 150, fp) == NULL) break;
I suspect you wanted one line of 150 chars
so do
char line[150];
You can use qsort to sort the array of lines, but that may not be the best approach. It may be more effective to insert the lines into a data structure that can be easily traversed in order. Although this simple minded solution is very much less than ideal, here's a simple-minded example of inserting into a tree. This sorts the lines lexicographically; modifying it to sort numerically based on the line is a good exercise.
/* Build an (unbalanced) binary search tree of lines in input. */
#include <stddef.h>
#include <stdint.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
static void * xrealloc(void *buf, size_t num, size_t siz, void *end);
FILE * xfopen(const char *path, const char *mode);
struct entry {
const char *line;
struct entry *node[2];
};
static struct entry *
new_node(const char *line)
{
struct entry *e = calloc(1, sizeof *e);
if( e == NULL ){
perror("calloc");
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
e->line = line;
return e;
}
/*
* Note that this tree needs to be rebalanced. In a real
* project, we would use existing libraries.
*/
static struct entry *
lookup(struct entry **lines, const char *line)
{
struct entry *t = *lines;
if( t ){
int cmp = strcmp(line, t->line);
return lookup(&t->node[cmp > 0], line);
} else {
return *lines = new_node(line);
}
}
/* In-order descent of the tree, printing one line per entry */
static void
print_table(const struct entry *t)
{
if( t ){
print_table(t->node[0]);
printf("%s", t->line);
print_table(t->node[1]);
}
}
static void *
xrealloc(void *buf, size_t num, size_t siz, void *endvp)
{
char **endp = endvp;
ptrdiff_t offset = endp && *endp ? *endp - (char *)buf : 0;
buf = realloc(buf, num * siz);
if( buf == NULL ){
perror("realloc");
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
if( endp != NULL ){
*endp = buf + offset;
}
return buf;
}
int
main(int argc, char **argv)
{
FILE *ifp = argc > 1 ? xfopen(argv[1], "r") : stdin;
struct entry *lines = NULL;
char *line = NULL;
size_t cap = 0;
while( getline(&line, &cap, ifp) > 0 ){
(void) lookup(&lines, line);
line = NULL;
}
print_table(lines);
}
FILE *
xfopen(const char *path, const char *mode)
{
FILE *fp = path[0] != '-' || path[1] != '\0' ? fopen(path, mode) :
*mode == 'r' ? stdin : stdout;
if( fp == NULL ){
perror(path);
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
return fp;
}

Update array of strings in function

I have a working example of copy lines from a file into an array of strings. I want to move the code to copy the lines into a function to which I simply pass a pointer to the array of strings, where the lines will be stored, and a pointer to the file. However, I have tried to move the code into a function and keep getting seg faults. I have tried debugging using GDB and it seems like the problem is with the memory allocation to rows. But I can't work out what the problem is. realloc seems to be working correctly since I find the size of row increases on the 3rd iteration (using malloc_usable_size(*rows)), but then seg faults. I'm compiling with gcc -Wall -Wextra -pedantic -std=c99 -g c_programs/read_file_function.c on Linux.
Working example
#define _GNU_SOURCE
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
if (argc != 2)
{
fprintf(stderr, "Please supply a file path:\n%s <file path>\n", argv[0]);
return EXIT_FAILURE;
}
FILE *fp = fopen(argv[1], "r");
if (!fp)
{
perror("ERROR");
return EXIT_FAILURE;
}
char **rows = (char **)malloc(sizeof(char *));
char *lineBuf = NULL;
size_t n = 0;
size_t nLines = 0;
ssize_t lineLength = 0;
size_t i = 0;
while ((lineLength = getline(&lineBuf, &n, fp)) != -1)
{
lineBuf[strcspn(lineBuf, "\n")] = 0;
lineBuf[strcspn(lineBuf, "\r")] = 0;
rows[i] = (char *)malloc(lineLength + 1);
strcpy(rows[i], lineBuf);
i++;
nLines = i;
rows = (char **)realloc(rows, (nLines + 1) * sizeof(char *));
}
printf("nLines: %lu\n", nLines);
printf("row 1: %s\n", rows[0]);
printf("row 2: %s\n", rows[1]);
printf("row 2: %s\n", rows[10]);
return 0;
}
Non working function version
#define _GNU_SOURCE
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
size_t readFile(FILE **fp, char ***rows)
{
char *lineBuf = NULL;
size_t n = 0;
size_t nLines = 0;
ssize_t lineLength = 0;
size_t i = 0;
while ((lineLength = getline(&lineBuf, &n, *fp)) != -1)
{
lineBuf[strcspn(lineBuf, "\n")] = 0;
lineBuf[strcspn(lineBuf, "\r")] = 0;
*rows[i] = (char *)malloc(lineLength + 1);
strcpy(*rows[i], lineBuf);
i++;
nLines = i;
*rows = (char **)realloc(*rows, (nLines + 1) * sizeof(char *));
}
return nLines;
}
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
if (argc != 2)
{
fprintf(stderr, "Please supply a file path:\n%s <file path>\n", argv[0]);
return EXIT_FAILURE;
}
FILE *fp = fopen(argv[1], "r");
if (!fp)
{
perror("ERROR");
return EXIT_FAILURE;
}
char **rows = (char **)malloc(sizeof(char *));
size_t nLines = readFile(&fp, &rows);
printf("nLines: %lu", nLines);
printf("row 1: %s", rows[0]);
printf("row 2: %s", rows[1]);
return 0;
}
*rows[i] is doing *(rows[i]) - accessing ith element in the array of rows, and then dereferencing it. You want to do (*rows)[i] - dereference rows and then access ith element.
I advise to:
readFile(..., char ***rows0) {
char **rows = NULL; // temporary internal variable
...
// use rows normally
rows = stuff();
...
// when finished, assign once
*rows0 = rows;
return nLines;
}
But do not be a 3-star programmer. At best, use a structure, -> is easy to use. Like:
struct string {
char *str;
};
struct lines {
struct string *strs;
size_t cnt;
};
// #return 0 on success, otherwise error
int readFile(...., struct lines *p) {
// initialization
p->cnt = 0;
p->strs = NULL;
...
void *pnt = realloc(p->strs, (p->cnt + 1) * ....);
if (!pnt) { /* handle error */ return -1; }
p->strs = pnt;
p->strs[p->cnt]->str = malloc(lineLenght + 1);
if (!p->strs[p->cnt]->str) { /* handle error */ return -2; }
strcpy(p->strs[p->cnt]->str, lineBuf);
p->cnt++;
...
return 0; /* success */
}
int main(int argc, char **argv) {
struct lines p = {0};
if (readFile(..., &p)) {
/* handle error */
}
printf("nLines: %zu\n", p.cnt);
Do not pre-allocate memory. Initialize memory with NULL and call realloc before using memory. realloc(NULL is the same as malloc().
Check for allocation errors.

Function to insert text line by line from a file into string array passed by pointer

I'm trying to create a function read_lines that takes a file *fp, a pointer to char** lines, and pointer to int num_lines. The function should insert each line of text into lines, and increase num_lines to however many lines the file has.
Its probably really simple but I've been trying to insert the text for several hours now.
This is what main.c would look like. Everything but read_lines is already defined and working.
int main(int argc, char* argv[]){
char** lines = NULL;
int num_lines = 0;
FILE* fp = validate_input(argc, argv);
read_lines(fp, &lines, &num_lines);
print_lines(lines, num_lines);
free_lines(lines, num_lines);
fclose(fp);
return 0;
}
This is one of my attempts at trying to append lines, but I couldn't figure it out.
read_lines.c
void read_lines(FILE *fp, char ***lines, int *num_lines) {
int i;
int N = 0;
char s[200];
for (i=0; i<3; i++)
{
while(fgets(s, 200, fp)!=NULL){N++;}
char strings[50][200];
rewind(fp);
fgets(s, 200, fp);
strcpy(lines[i],s);
}
}
I'd appreciate any help at solving this, thanks.
A solution (without headers and error checking for readability):
void read_lines(FILE *stream, char ***lines_ptr, size_t *num_lines_ptr) {
char **lines = NULL;
size_t num_lines = 0;
char *line = NULL;
size_t len = 0;
ssize_t nread;
while ((nread = getline(&line, &len, stream)) != -1) {
lines = lines == NULL
? malloc(sizeof(char*))
: realloc(lines, (num_lines+1)*sizeof(char*));
lines[num_lines] = malloc(nread+1);
memcpy(lines[num_lines], line);
++num_lines;
}
free(line);
*lines_ptr = lines;
*num_lines_ptr = num_lines;
}
The full solution:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
// lines_ptr: Output. Initial value ignored. To be freed by caller on success.
// num_lines_ptr: Output. Initial value ignored.
// Returns: 0 on error (errno set). 1 on success.
int read_lines(FILE *stream, char ***lines_ptr, size_t *num_lines_ptr) {
char ***lines = NULL;
size_t num_lines = 0;
char *line = NULL;
size_t len = 0;
ssize_t nread;
while ((nread = getline(&line, &len, stream)) != -1) {
char **new_lines = lines == NULL
? malloc(sizeof(char*))
: realloc(lines, (num_lines+1)*sizeof(char*));
if (new_lines == NULL)
goto error;
lines = new_lines;
lines[num_lines] = malloc(nread+1);
if (lines[num_lines] == NULL)
goto error;
memcpy(lines[num_lines], line);
++num_lines;
}
if (ferror(stream))
goto error;
free(line);
*lines_ptr = lines;
*num_lines_ptr = num_lines;
return 1;
error:
for (size_t i=num_lines; i--; )
free(lines[i]);
free(lines);
free(line);
*lines_ptr = NULL;
*num_lines_ptr = 0;
return 0;
}
(You could save three lines by using the ..._ptr vars instead of setting them at the end, but is that really worth the readability cost?)
I find fgets hard to use and more trouble than it's worth. Here is a fgetc and malloc-based approach:
void read_lines(FILE *fp, char ***lines, int *num_lines) {
int c;
size_t line = 0;
size_t pos = 0;
size_t len = 64;
*lines = malloc(1 * sizeof(char*));
(*lines)[0] = malloc(len);
while ((c = fgetc(fp)) != EOF) {
if (c == '\n') {
(*lines)[line][pos] = '\0';
line++;
pos = 0;
len = 64;
*lines = realloc(*lines, (line+1) * sizeof(char*));
} else {
(*lines)[line][pos] = c;
}
pos++;
if (pos >= len) {
len *= 2;
(*lines)[line] = realloc((*lines)[line], len);
}
}
*num_lines = line+1;
}
I haven't checked this, so correct me if I made any mistakes. Also, in real code you would do lots of error checking here that I have omitted.
assuming you have allocated enough memory to lines, following should work
if not you have to malloc/calloc() for lines[i] before doing strcpy() in every
iteration of the loop.
void read_lines(FILE *fp, char ***lines, int *num_lines) {
int N = 0;
char s[200];
while(fgets(s, 200, fp)!=NULL){
N++;
strcpy((*lines)[N],s);
}
*num_lines = N; // update pointer with value of N which is number of lines in file
}

reading file`s lines char by char into char** array

I wrote the next function that tries to read and enter each line from text file into a string array in c :
int main(int argc,char* argv[])
{
char ** lines;
readFile(argv[1],lines);
}
int readFile(char* filePath,char** lines)
{
char file_char;
int letter_in_line=0;
int line=1;
char* line_string=malloc(1024);
int j=1;
int fd=open(filePath,O_RDONLY);
if (fd < 0)
{
return 0;
}
while (read(fd,&file_char,1) >0)
{
if(file_char != '\n' && file_char != '0x0')
{
line_string[letter_in_line] = file_char;
letter_in_line++;
}
else
{
if(lines != NULL)
{
lines=(char**)realloc(lines,sizeof(char*)*line);
}
else
{
lines=(char**)malloc(sizeof(char*));
}
char* line_s_copy=strdup(line_string);
lines[line-1]=line_s_copy;
line++;
letter_in_line=0;
memset(line_string,0,strlen(line_string));
}
j++;
}
printf("cell 0 : %s",lines[0]);
return 1;
}
I have 2 questions :
1)Whenever the code reaches the print of cell 0, I'm getting
Segmentation fault (core dumped) error. What is wrong ?
2)In case I
want to see the changes in the lines array in my main, I should pass
&lines to the func and get char*** lines as an argument ? In
addition, I will need to replace every 'line' keyword with '*line' ?
*I know that I can use fopen,fget, etc... I decided to implement it in this way for a reason.
There is many issues that make your code core dump.
Here a version very similar to your code. I hope it will help you to understand this.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
int read_file(const char *filename, char ***result)
{
/* open the file */
const int fd = open(filename, O_RDONLY);
if (fd < 0) {
*result = NULL;
return -1;
}
/* read the file characters by characters */
char *buffer = (char *)malloc(sizeof(char) * 1024);
char c;
int column = 0;
int line = 0;
*result = NULL;
/* for each characters in the file */
while (read(fd, &c, 1) > 0) {
/* check for end of line */
if (c != '\n' && c != 0 && column < 1024 - 1)
buffer[column++] = c;
else {
/* string are null terminated in C */
buffer[column] = 0;
column = 0;
/* alloc memory for this line in result */
*result = (char **)realloc(*result, sizeof(char *) *
(line + 1));
/* duplicate buffer and store it in result */
(*result)[line++] = strdup(buffer);
}
}
free(buffer);
return line;
}
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
if (argc != 2) {
fprintf(stderr, "usage: %s [filename]", argv[0]);
return 1;
}
char **lines;
int line_count = read_file(argv[1], &lines);
if (line_count < 0) {
fprintf(stderr, "cannot open file %s\n", argv[1]);
return 1;
}
for(int i=0; i < line_count; i++)
printf("%s\n", lines[i]);
return 0;
}
Here an other version:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
int read_file(const char *filename, char ***result)
{
/* init result */
*result = NULL;
/* open the file */
FILE *file = fopen(filename, "r");
if (file == NULL)
return -1;
/* read the file line by line */
char *buffer = (char *)malloc(sizeof(char) * 1024);
int line = 0;
while (fgets(buffer, 1024, file)) {
*result = (char **)realloc(*result, sizeof(char *) *
(line + 1));
(*result)[line++] = strdup(buffer);
}
free(buffer);
return line;
}
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
if (argc != 2) {
fprintf(stderr, "usage: %s [filename]", argv[0]);
return 1;
}
char **lines;
int line_count = read_file(argv[1], &lines);
if (line_count < 0) {
fprintf(stderr, "cannot open file %s\n", argv[1]);
return 1;
}
for(int i=0; i < line_count; i++)
printf("%s\n", lines[i]);
return 0;
}

How to read each individual lines of a text file into their own individual variables

Hi guys I am in the second weekend of trying to find the solution to this problem. I am new at c programming and I have been trying to read each individual line of a text file and pass each of them to their own variable, where I will be able to manipulate them(such as compare them, do calculations etc).
I have a code to read each individual lines but I am unsure how to pass each line to a variable, here is the code:
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
struct line_reader {
FILE *f;
char *buf;
size_t siz;
};
void
lr_init(struct line_reader *lr, FILE *f)
{
lr->f = f;
lr->buf = NULL;
lr->siz = 0;
}
char *
next_line(struct line_reader *lr, size_t *len)
{
size_t newsiz;
int c;
char *newbuf;
*len = 0;
for (;;) {
c = fgetc(lr->f);
if (ferror(lr->f))
return NULL;
if (c == EOF) {
if (*len == 0)
return NULL;
else
return lr->buf;
} else {
if (*len == lr->siz) {
newsiz = lr->siz + 4096;
newbuf = realloc(lr->buf, newsiz);
if (newbuf == NULL)
return NULL;
lr->buf = newbuf;
lr->siz = newsiz;
}
lr->buf[(*len)++] = c;
if (c == '\n')
return lr->buf;
}
}
}
void
lr_free(struct line_reader *lr)
{
free(lr->buf);
lr->buf = NULL;
lr->siz = 0;
}
int
main()
{
struct line_reader lr;
FILE *f;
size_t len;
char *line;
f = fopen("file.txt", "r");
if (f == NULL) {
perror("foobar.txt");
exit(1);
}
lr_init(&lr, f);
while (line = next_line(&lr, &len)) {
fputs("1: ", stdout);
fwrite(line, len, 1, stdout);
}
if (!feof(f)) {
perror("next_line");
exit(1);
}
lr_free(&lr);
return 0;
}
Any help would be appreciated.
What about using an array simply as a suggestion
e.g.)
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
char** readFile(const char *filename, size_t *lineCount){
FILE *fp;
char buff[4096];
size_t lines = 0, capacity=1024;
char **line;
if(NULL==(fp=fopen(filename, "r"))){
perror("file can't open.");
return NULL;
}
if(NULL==(line=(char**)malloc(sizeof(char*)*capacity))){
perror("can't memory allocate.");
fclose(fp);
return NULL;
}
while(NULL!=fgets(buff, sizeof(buff), fp)){
line[lines++] = strdup(buff);
if(lines == capacity){
capacity += 32;
if(NULL==(line=(char**)realloc(line, sizeof(char*)*capacity))){
perror("can't memory allocate.");
fclose(fp);
return NULL;
}
}
}
*lineCount = lines;
fclose(fp);
return (char**)realloc(line, sizeof(char*)*lines);
}
void freeMem(char** p, size_t size){
size_t i;
if(p==NULL) return;
for(i=0;i<size;++i)
free(p[i]);
free(p);
}
int main(){
size_t lines;
char **line;
if(NULL!=(line=readFile("file.txt", &lines))){//lines: set line count of file
printf("%s", line[25]);// 26th line of file, zero origin
}
freeMem(line, lines);
return 0;
}
On any POSIX-compliant system just use the m scan modifier:
for ( char *line, nl; scanf("%m[^\n]%c",&line,&nl) != EOF ; free(line) ) {
if ( !line )
strcpy(line=malloc(1),""), getchar();
// ...
}
m has been in the standard for five years now.

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