Reads a string from a file

#include <stdio.h>
char *fgets ( char * restrict buffer , int n , FILE * restrict fp  );

The fgets( ) function reads a sequence of up to n - 1 characters from the file referenced by the FILE pointer argument, and writes it to the buffer indicated by the char pointer argument, appending the string terminator character '\0'. If a newline character ('\n') is read, reading stops and the string written to the buffer is terminated after the newline character.

The fgets( ) function returns the pointer to the string buffer if anything was written to it, or a null pointer if an error occurred or if the file position indicator was at the end of the file.

Example

FILE *titlefile;
char title[256];
int counter = 0;

if ((titlefile = fopen("titles.txt", "r")) == NULL)
  perror( "Opening title file" );
else
{
  while ( fgets( title, 256, titlefile ) != NULL )
  {
    title[ strlen(title) -1 ] = '\0';       // Trim off newline character.
    printf( "%3d: \"%s\"\n", ++counter, title );
  }
  /* fgets( ) returned NULL: either EOF or an error occurred. */
  if ( feof(titlefile) )
    printf("Total: %d titles.\n", counter);
}

If the working directory contains an appropriate text file, the program produces output like this:

  1: "The Amazing Maurice"
  2: "La condition humaine"
  3: "Die Eroberung der Maschinen"
Total: 3 titles.

See Also

fputs( ), puts( ), fgetc( ), fgetws( ), fputws( )