Reading the whole text file into a char array in C

Question

Hi,

I want to read the contents of a text file into a char array in C. Newlines must be kept.

How do I accomplish this? I've found some C++ solutions on the web, but no C only solution.

Thanks!

Yvan

Edit: I have the following code now:

void *loadfile(char *file, int *size)
{
    FILE *fp;
    long lSize;
    char *buffer;

    fp = fopen ( file , "rb" );
    if( !fp ) perror(file),exit(1);

    fseek( fp , 0L , SEEK_END);
    lSize = ftell( fp );
    rewind( fp );

    /* allocate memory for entire content */
    buffer = calloc( 1, lSize+1 );
    if( !buffer ) fclose(fp),fputs("memory alloc fails",stderr),exit(1);

    /* copy the file into the buffer */
    if( 1!=fread( buffer , lSize, 1 , fp) )
      fclose(fp),free(buffer),fputs("entire read fails",stderr),exit(1);

    /* do your work here, buffer is a string contains the whole text */
    size = (int *)lSize;
    fclose(fp);
    return buffer;
}

I get one warning: warning: assignment makes pointer from integer without a cast. This is on the line "size = (int)lSize;". If I run the app, it segfaults.

THe above code works now. I located the segfault, and I posted another question. Thanks for the help.

Answer 1

fgets() is a C function that can be used to accomplish this.

Edit: You can also consider using fread().

Answer 2

FILE *fp;
long lSize;
char *buffer;

fp = fopen ( "blah.txt" , "rb" );
if( !fp ) perror("blah.txt"),exit(1);

fseek( fp , 0L , SEEK_END);
lSize = ftell( fp );
rewind( fp );

/* allocate memory for entire content */
buffer = calloc( 1, lSize+1 );
if( !buffer ) fclose(fp),fputs("memory alloc fails",stderr),exit(1);

/* copy the file into the buffer */
if( 1!=fread( buffer , lSize, 1 , fp) )
  fclose(fp),free(buffer),fputs("entire read fails",stderr),exit(1);

/* do your work here, buffer is a string contains the whole text */

fclose(fp);
free(buffer);