C File Input/output - Overview of Functions

Overview of Functions

Most of the C file input/output functions are defined in stdio.h (cstdio header in C++).

	Byte character	Wide character	Description
File access	`fopen`		opens a file
	`freopen`		opens a different file with an existing stream
	`fflush`		synchronizes an output stream with the actual file
	`fclose`		closes a file
	`setbuf`		sets the buffer for a file stream
	`setvbuf`		sets the buffer and its size for a file stream
	`fwide`		switches a file stream between wide character I/O and narrow character I/O
Direct input/output	`fread`		reads from a file
Direct input/output	`fwrite`		writes to a file
Unformatted input/output	`fgetc` `getc`	`fgetwc` `getwc`	reads a byte/`wchar_t` from a file stream
	`fgets`	`fgetws`	reads a byte/`wchar_t` line from a file stream
	`fputc` `putc`	`fputwc` `putwc`	writes a byte/`wchar_t` to a file stream
	`fputs`	`fputws`	writes a byte/`wchar_t` string to a file stream
	`getchar`	`getwchar`	reads a byte/`wchar_t` from stdin
	`gets`		reads a byte string from stdin (deprecated in C99, obsoleted in C11)
	`putchar`	`putwchar`	writes a byte/`wchar_t` to stdout
	`puts`		writes a byte string to stdout
	`ungetc`	`ungetwc`	puts a byte/`wchar_t` back into a file stream
Formatted input/output	`scanf` `fscanf` `sscanf`	`wscanf` `fwscanf` `swscanf`	reads formatted byte/`wchar_t` input from stdin, a file stream or a buffer
	`vscanf` `vfscanf` `vsscanf`	`vwscanf` `vfwscanf` `vswscanf`	reads formatted input byte/`wchar_t` from stdin, a file stream or a buffer using variable argument list
	`printf` `fprintf` `sprintf` `snprintf`	`wprintf` `fwprintf` `swprintf`	prints formatted byte/`wchar_t` output to stdout, a file stream or a buffer
	`vprintf` `vfprintf` `vsprintf` `vsnprintf`	`vwprintf` `vfwprintf` `vswprintf`	prints formatted byte/`wchar_t` output to stdout, a file stream, or a buffer using variable argument list
File positioning	`ftell`		returns the current file position indicator
	`fgetpos`		gets the file position indicator
	`fseek`		moves the file position indicator to a specific location in a file
	`fsetpos`		moves the file position indicator to a specific location in a file
	`rewind`		moves the file position indicator to the beginning in a file
Error handling	`clearerr`		clears errors
	`feof`		checks for the end-of-file
	`ferror`		checks for a file error
	`perror`		displays a character string corresponding of the current error to stderr
Operations on files	`remove`		erases a file
	`rename`		renames a file
	`tmpfile`		returns a pointer to a temporary file
	`tmpnam`		returns a unique filename

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