37. fopen

Synopsis

Open a file

Usage

File_Type fopen (String_Type f, String_Type m)

Description

The fopen function opens a file f according to the mode string m. Allowed values for m are:

     "r"    Read only
     "w"    Write only
     "a"    Append
     "r+"   Reading and writing at the beginning of the file.
     "w+"   Reading and writing.  The file is created if it does not
              exist; otherwise, it is truncated.
     "a+"   Reading and writing at the end of the file.  The file is created
              if it does not already exist.
<tscreen><verb>
  In addition, the mode string can also include the letter \var{'b'}
  as the last character to indicate that the file is to be opened in
  binary mode.

  Upon success, \var{fopen} a \var{File_Type} object which is meant to
  be used in other operations that require an open file.  Upon
  failure, the function returns \var{NULL}.
\example
  The following function opens a file in append mode and writes a
  string to it:
<tscreen><verb>
    define append_string_to_file (file, str)
    {
       variable fp = fopen (file, "a");
       if (fp == NULL) verror ("%s could not be opened", file);
       () = fputs (string, fp);
       () = fclose (fp);
    }

Note that the return values from fputs and fclose are ignored.

Notes

There is no need to explicitly close a file opened with fopen. If the returned File_Type object goes out of scope, S-lang will automatically close the file. However, explicitly closing a file after use is recommended.

See Also

fclose, fgets, fputs