14.2.3 Line-Oriented Input

To read from a file it must be opened for reading using fopen. Then a line can be read from the file using fgetl as the following code illustrates

fid = fopen ("free.txt");
txt = fgetl (fid)
     -| Free Software is needed for Free Science
fclose (fid);

This of course assumes that the file ‘free.txt’ exists and contains the line ‘Free Software is needed for Free Science’.

Built-in Function: fgetl (fid, len)

Read characters from a file, stopping after a newline, or EOF, or len characters have been read. The characters read, excluding the possible trailing newline, are returned as a string.

If len is omitted, fgetl reads until the next newline character.

If there are no more characters to read, fgetl returns -1.

See also: fread, fscanf.

Built-in Function: fgets (fid, len)

Read characters from a file, stopping after a newline, or EOF, or len characters have been read. The characters read, including the possible trailing newline, are returned as a string.

If len is omitted, fgets reads until the next newline character.

If there are no more characters to read, fgets returns -1.

See also: fputs, fopen, fread, fscanf.