Standard Input and Output

Overview
Data communication with a C program and the
outside world is performed through files
Files are a non-volatile way to store data by means
of such media as tape, CD-ROM, floppy disk, ZIP
disk, hard drive, etc.
C (just like the UNIX operating system) considers
all process communication media to be files
An ordinary file on a disk is considered to be a file
So is the keyboard, the screen, parallel ports, and serial
ports

Communication through Files
Programs access files through basic file operations
Open a file
Read data from a file
Write data to a file
Close a file
Text files store all data types as character bytes; the
way a program reads the data (either text or binary
mode) determines how the data is interpreted
Example: 12 z rti 456.79 room
character?, character string?, integer?, floating point
number?
stdin, stdout, stderr
Three files are automatically opened each time a C
program is run and automatically closed when a C
program ends: stdin, stdout, and stderr
stdin
Standard input, default source is the keyboard
stdout
Standard output, default destination is the screen
stderr
Standard error, default destination is the screen
These three variable names are referred to as file
descriptors; each is a handle (or pointer) to a
record (i.e., struct) describing the actual file
C Program Entrances and Exits
stdout (Screen)
stdin (Keyboard)
stderr (Screen)
Constants and variables
Operations and
functions
main
X Y Z
A B C D
Instructions and
operating procedures
Files as Pipes for Data
Program
to compute
average
stdin stdout
45 27 15 52 Average is 34.75
Files act as pipes to bring a stream of data
into the program and send a stream of
data out of the program
The program reads data from stdin and writes
data to stdout as if they were ordinary files
One Byte At a Time
Data is read or written one byte at a time from a file
until the end of the file is reached or until the file is
closed. The file system uses a pointer to keep track
of the next byte to read or to write
Smith Jack 1045.76 Manager 15

Hanson Susan 98.62 Operator 7

Jones Nancy 790.25 Administrator 10

Doe Carl 526.71 Technician 12

In this file, the program has read the data as far as the
letter 'J'. The next character to be read is 'a'
Functions Using stdin and stdout-1
Some standard C functions implicitly use stdin and stdout
scanf("%d", &aNumber);
aSymbol = getchar();
gets(theBuffer); // High security risk
printf("Average: %5.2f", theAverage);
putchar(aCharacter);
puts(aPhrase);
Functions Using stdin and stdout-2
Other functions need to have stdin and stdout specified as
the file descriptor
fscanf(stdin, "%d", &aNumber);
aSymbol = fgetc(stdin);
fgets(theBuffer, sizeof(theBuffer), stdin);
fprintf(stdout, "Average: %5.2f",
theAverage);
fputc(aCharacter, stdout);
puts(aPhrase, stdout);
Input and Output Redirection
Because a C program considers stdin and stdout to
be ordinary files, a user can redirect the input and
output to another source or destination
That source or destination can be an I/O device or
an ordinary file
This redirection can be done when a program is
run from the DOS or UNIX command line
The '<' sign redirects input from a file
The '>' sign redirects output to a new file
The ">>" sign redirects output and appends the
data to a current file or creates the file if it doesn't
yet exist
Example of I/O Redirection
Input comes from a file, output goes to the screen
C:\myprogram <numbers.dat
Input comes from the keyboard, output goes to a file
C:\myprogram >results.txt
Input comes from a file; output goes to a file
C:\myprogram <lab.txt >findings.dat
Input comes from the keyboard and the output is
appended to the contents in a file
C:\myprogram >>findings.dat
Some Redirection to Try Out
in MS-DOS
Example #1
C:\dir >dirwords.txt
C:\type dirwords.txt

Example #2
C:\dir >dir.dat
C:\find ".c" <dir.dat
C:\find ".c" <dir.dat >findings.txt
C:\find ".exe" <dir.dat >>findings.txt
C:\type findings.txt
printf Function
The printf function writes formatted output to stdout
Ex. printf("Average: %5.2f \n", theAverage);
The first argument is a character string containing
ordinary text, escape characters, and format specifiers
Syntax for format specifier:
%<fieldwidth>.<precision><conversion specifier>
Each escape character is a combination of a '\' and a
character, which represents a nonviewable ASCII
character. An example is \n for newline
The order, number, and type of the format specifiers
corresponds to the order, number, and type of the
arguments in the printf call
printf Examples
No format specifiers, one escape character, no other
arguments
printf("Name Age Address Distance\n");
One format specifier, two arguments
printf("Results is %d\n", theResult);
Four format specifiers, five arguments
printf("%c %d %f %s", aCharacter, anInteger,
aFloat, aString);
Same as above, but with field width and precision
specified
printf("%4c %3d %5.3f %8s", aCharacter,
anInteger, aFloat, aString);

scanf Function
The scanf function reads formatted input from stdin
scanf("%d", &aNumber);
The first argument is a character string containing one or more
conversion specifiers
Syntax for format specifier: %<conversion specifier>
The order, number, and type of the conversion specifiers
corresponds to the order, number, and type of the other
arguments in the scanf call
Each argument value must by the address of the variable, NOT
the variable itself, where the value should be stored
To designate the address for a character, integer, structure, or
floating point variable, precede the variable name by the &
operator, which means "address of
Array names are a special case when passed as an argument
scanf Examples
One format specifier, two arguments
scanf("%d", &theResult);
Three format specifiers, four arguments
scanf("%d%f%s", &anInteger, &aFloat, aString);
Same as above, but in a different order
scanf("%s %f %d", aString, &aFloat, &anInteger);