Reading a text file into an array of strings in C

Question

With C, I would like to read the contents of a text file in such a way as to have, when everything is said and done, an array of strings with the nth line representing the nth line of the text file. File lines can be arbitrarily long.

What an elegant way to achieve this? I know some neat tricks to read a text file directly into one buffer of the appropriate size, but breaking it into lines makes it more complicated (at least as far as I can tell).

Many thanks!

Answer 1

EOL ( EOL I\n \r) 0. , char * ( 2 ).

, + 2 , , , .

Answer 2

(loop fgets), , + 1. .

. .

:

inFile = fopen(FILENAME, "r");
lineCount = 0;
while(inputError != EOF) {
    inputError = fscanf(inFile, "%s\n", word);
    lineCount++;
}
fclose(inFile);
  // Above iterates lineCount++ after the EOF to allow for an array
  // that matches the line numbers

char names[lineCount][MAX_LINE];

fopen(FILENAME, "r");
for(i = 1; i < lineCount; i++)
    fscanf(inFile, "%s", names[i]);
fclose(inFile);

Answer 3

C ( ++) , , fgets(). - .

Answer 4

, ? , , . Linked List .

, , , , - .

Answer 5

If you have a good way to read the entire file in memory, you are almost there. After that, you can scan the file twice. Once to count lines, and once to set line pointers and replace "\ n" and (and possibly "\ r" if the file is being read in Windows binary mode) with "\ 0". An array of pointers stands out between the scans, now you know how much you need.

Answer 6

you can use this method

#include <stdlib.h> /* exit, malloc, realloc, free */
#include <stdio.h>  /* fopen, fgetc, fputs, fwrite */

struct line_reader {
    /* All members are private. */
    FILE    *f;
    char    *buf;
    size_t   siz;
};

/*
 * Initializes a line reader _lr_ for the stream _f_.
 */
void
lr_init(struct line_reader *lr, FILE *f)
{
    lr->f = f;
    lr->buf = NULL;
    lr->siz = 0;
}

/*
 * Reads the next line. If successful, returns a pointer to the line,
 * and sets *len to the number of characters, at least 1. The result is
 * _not_ a C string; it has no terminating '\0'. The returned pointer
 * remains valid until the next call to next_line() or lr_free() with
 * the same _lr_.
 *
 * next_line() returns NULL at end of file, or if there is an error (on
 * the stream, or with memory allocation).
 */
char *
next_line(struct line_reader *lr, size_t *len)
{
    size_t newsiz;
    int c;
    char *newbuf;

    *len = 0;           /* Start with empty line. */
    for (;;) {
        c = fgetc(lr->f);   /* Read next character. */
        if (ferror(lr->f))
            return NULL;

        if (c == EOF) {
            /*
             * End of file is also end of last line,
        `    * unless this last line would be empty.
             */
            if (*len == 0)
                return NULL;
            else
                return lr->buf;
        } else {
            /* Append c to the buffer. */
            if (*len == lr->siz) {
                /* Need a bigger buffer! */
                newsiz = lr->siz + 4096;
                newbuf = realloc(lr->buf, newsiz);
                if (newbuf == NULL)
                    return NULL;
                lr->buf = newbuf;
                lr->siz = newsiz;
            }
            lr->buf[(*len)++] = c;

            /* '\n' is end of line. */
            if (c == '\n')
                return lr->buf;
        }
    }
}

/*
 * Frees internal memory used by _lr_.
 */
void
lr_free(struct line_reader *lr)
{
    free(lr->buf);
    lr->buf = NULL;
    lr->siz = 0;
}

/*
 * Read a file line by line.
 * http://rosettacode.org/wiki/Read_a_file_line_by_line
 */
int
main()
{
    struct line_reader lr;
    FILE *f;
    size_t len;
    char *line;

    f = fopen("foobar.txt", "r");
    if (f == NULL) {
        perror("foobar.txt");
        exit(1);
    }

    /*
     * This loop reads each line.
     * Remember that line is not a C string.
     * There is no terminating '\0'.
     */
    lr_init(&lr, f);
    while (line = next_line(&lr, &len)) {
        /*
         * Do something with line.
         */
        fputs("LINE: ", stdout);
        fwrite(line, len, 1, stdout);
    }
    if (!feof(f)) {
        perror("next_line");
        exit(1);
    }
    lr_free(&lr);

    return 0;
}