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fread() function in C++ program
Given the task is to show the working of fread() in C++. In this article we will also look into the different parameters which are passed to fread() and what this function returns.
fread() is an inbuilt function of C++ which reads a block of data from the stream. This function counts the number of objects each with the size of “size” bytes from the stream and stores them in buffer memory, then position pointer advanced by the total amount of bytes read. The amount of bytes read if successful will be size *count.
Syntax
fread(void *buffer, size_t size, size_t count, FILE *file_stream);
Parameters
This function will require all 4 parameters. Let’s understand the parameters.
buffer − This is a pointer of a buffer memory block where the bytes read from stream are stored.
size − It defines the size of each element to be read in bytes. (size_t is unsigned int).
count − The number of elements to be read.\
file_stream − Pointer of the file stream from which we want to read the bytes.
Return Value
The number of elements successfully read is returned.
If any reading error occurs or it reaches end-of-file the number of elements returned will vary from the count variable.
Example
#include <bits/stdc++.h>
#include <cstdio>
using namespace std;
int main() {
FILE* file_stream;
char buf[100];
file_stream = fopen("tp.txt", "r");
while (!feof(file_stream)) //will read the file {
// will read the contents of the file.
fread(buf, sizeof(buf), 1, file_stream);
cout << buf;
}
return 0;
}Assuming the tp.txt file have the following content
tutorialspoint
Contribution
anything here
Output
If we run the above code it will generate the following output −
tutorialspoint Contribution anything here
Let’s take example and check the output when the count is zero and the size is zero.
Example
#include <iostream>
#include <cstdio>
using namespace std; int main() {
FILE *fp;
char buffer[100];
int retVal;
fp = fopen("tpempty.txt","rb");
retVal = fread(buffer,sizeof(buffer),0,fp);
cout << "The count = 0, then return value = " << retVal << endl;
retVal = fread(buffer,0,1,fp);
cout << "The size = 0, then value = " << retVal << endl;
return 0;
}Output
If we run the above code it will generate the following output −
The count = 0, then return value = 0 The size = 0, then value = 0
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