C-style file input/output

 

C++

Language

Standard library headers

Concepts

Utilities library

Strings library

Containers library

Algorithms library

Iterators library

Numerics library

Input/output library

Localizations library

Regular expressions library (C++11)

Atomic operations library (C++11)

Thread support library (C++11)

 

Input/output library

I/O manipulators

C-style I/O

Buffers

basic_streambuf

basic_filebuf

basic_stringbuf

strstreambuf (deprecated)

Streams

Abstractions

ios_base

basic_ios

basic_istream

basic_ostream

basic_iostream

File I/O

basic_ifstream

basic_ofstream

basic_fstream

String I/O

basic_istringstream

basic_ostringstream

basic_stringstream

Array I/O

istrstream (deprecated)

ostrstream (deprecated)

strstream (deprecated)

Types

streamoff

streamsize

fpos

Error category interface

iostream_category (C++11)

io_errc (C++11)

 

C-style I/O

Functions
File access
fopen freopen fclose fflush	fwide setbuf setvbuf
Direct input/output
fread
fwrite
Unformatted input/output
fgetc fgets fputc fputs getchar gets putchar puts ungetc	fgetwc fgetws fputwc fputws getwchar putwchar ungetwc
Formatted input/output
scanffscanfsscanf vscanfvfscanfvsscanf (C++11)(C++11)(C++11) printffprintfsprintfsnprintf (C++11) vprintfvfprintfvsprintfvsnprintf (C++11)	wscanffwscanfswscanf vwscanfvfwscanfvswscanf (C++11)(C++11)(C++11) wprintffwprintfswprintf vwprintfvfwprintfvswprintf
File positioning
ftell
fgetpos
fseek
fsetpos
rewind
Error handling
clearerr
feof
ferror
perror
Operations on files
remove
rename
tmpfile
tmpnam

 

The C I/O subset of the C++ standard library implements C-style stream input/output operations. The <cstdio> header provides generic file operation support and supplies functions with narrow and multibyte character input/output capabilities, and the <cwchar> header provides functions with wide character input/output capabilities.

C streams are objects of type std::FILE that can only be accessed and manipulated through pointers of type std::FILE* (Note: while it may be possible to create a local object of type std::FILE by dereferencing and copying a valid std::FILE*, using the address of such copy in the I/O functions is undefined behavior). Each C stream is associated with an external physical device (file, standard input stream, printer, serial port, etc).

C streams can be used for both unformatted and formatted input and output. They are locale-sensitive and may perform wide/multibyte conversions as necessary. Unlike C++ streams, where each stream is associated with its own locale, all C streams access the same locale object: the one most recently installed with std::setlocale.

Besides the system-specific information necessary to access the device (e.g. a POSIX file descriptor), each C stream object holds the following:

1) Character width: narrow or wide

2) Buffering state: unbuffered, line-buffered, fully buffered.

3) The buffer, which may be replaced by an external, user-provided buffer.

4) I/O mode: input, output, or update (both input and output).

5) Binary/text mode indicator.

6) End-of-file status indicator.

7) Error status indicator.

8) File position indicator (an object of type std::fpos_t), which, for wide character streams, includes the parse state (an object of type std::mbstate_t).

Functions

File access
fopen	opens a file (function)
freopen	open an existing stream with a different name (function)
fclose	closes a file (function)
fflush	synchronizes an output stream with the actual file (function)
fwide	switches a file stream between wide character I/O and narrow character I/O (function)
setbuf	sets the buffer for a file stream (function)
setvbuf	sets the buffer and its size for a file stream (function)
Direct input/output
fread	reads from a file (function)
fwrite	writes to a file (function)
Unformatted input/output
Narrow character
fgetcgetc	gets a character from a file stream (function)
fgets	gets a character string from a file stream (function)
fputcputc	writes a character to a file stream (function)
fputs	writes a character string to a file stream (function)
getchar	reads a character from stdin (function)
gets	reads a character string from stdin(until C++14) (function)
putchar	writes a character to stdout (function)
puts	writes a character string to stdout (function)
ungetc	puts a character back into a file stream (function)
Wide character
fgetwcgetwc	gets a wide character from a file stream (function)
fgetws	gets a wide string from a file stream (function)
fputwcputwc	writes a wide character to a file stream (function)
fputws	writes a wide string to a file stream (function)
getwchar	reads a wide character from stdin (function)
putwchar	writes a wide character to stdout (function)
ungetwc	puts a wide character back into a file stream (function)
Formatted input/output
Narrow/multibyte character
scanffscanfsscanf	reads formatted input from stdin, a file stream or a buffer (function)
vscanfvfscanfvsscanf (C++11)(C++11)(C++11)	reads formatted input from stdin, a file stream or a buffer using variable argument list (function)
printffprintfsprintfsnprintf (C++11)	prints formatted output to stdout, a file stream or a buffer (function)
vprintfvfprintfvsprintfvsnprintf (C++11)	prints formatted output to stdout, a file stream or a buffer using variable argument list (function)
Wide character
wscanffwscanfswscanf	reads formatted wide character input from stdin, a file stream or a buffer (function)
vwscanfvfwscanfvswscanf (C++11)(C++11)(C++11)	reads formatted wide character input from stdin, a file stream or a buffer using variable argument list (function)
wprintffwprintfswprintf	prints formatted wide character output to stdout, a file stream or a buffer (function)
vwprintfvfwprintfvswprintf	prints formatted wide character output to stdout, a file stream or a buffer using variable argument list (function)
File positioning
ftell	returns the current file position indicator (function)
fgetpos	gets the file position indicator (function)
fseek	moves the file position indicator to a specific location in a file (function)
fsetpos	moves the file position indicator to a specific location in a file (function)
rewind	moves the file position indicator to the beginning in a file (function)
Error handling
clearerr	clears errors (function)
feof	checks for the end-of-file (function)
ferror	checks for a file error (function)
perror	displays a character string corresponding of the current error to stderr (function)
Operations on files
remove	erases a file (function)
rename	renames a file (function)
tmpfile	creates and opens a temporary, auto-removing file (function)
tmpnam	returns a unique filename (function)

Types

Defined in header <cstdio>
Type	Definition
FILE	type, capable of holding all information needed to control a C I/O stream
fpos_t	non-array type, capable of uniquely specifying a position in a file, including its multibyte parse state

Macros

Defined in header <cstdio>
stdin stdout stderr	expression of type FILE* associated with the input stream expression of type FILE* associated with the output stream expression of type FILE* associated with the error output stream (macro constant)
EOF	integer constant expression of type int and negative value (macro constant)
FOPEN_MAX	number of files that can be open simultaneously (macro constant)
FILENAME_MAX	size needed for an array of char to hold the longest supported file name (macro constant)
BUFSIZ	size of the buffer used by std::setbuf (macro constant)
_IOFBF _IOLBF _IONBF	argument to std::setbuf indicating fully buffered I/O argument to std::setbuf indicating line buffered I/O argument to std::setbuf indicating unbuffered I/O (macro constant)
SEEK_SET SEEK_CUR SEEK_END	argument to std::fseek indicating seeking from beginning of the file argument to std::fseek indicating seeking from the current file position argument to std::fseek indicating seeking from end of the file (macro constant)
TMP_MAX	maximum number of unique filenames that can be generated by std::tmpnam (macro constant)
L_tmpnam	size needed for an array of char to hold the result of std::tmpnam (macro constant)

See also

C documentation for File input/output