D-SP-Ch4f-character-at-a-time-IO

getc, fgetc, getchar

Function Prototype

int getc(FILE *fp);
int fgetc(FILE *fp);
int getchar(void);

Difference between getc and fgetc

• getc might be a macro based on the system
• macro might run inefficiently compared with function

Warning

We should use int instead of char to receive return value of character-at-a-time I/O. This is because there is no guarantee whether char is signed or unsigned

Character-at-a-time I/O returns -1 for EOF and error, so

• unsigned char - loops never terminates since character’s value never equals -1
• signed char - the character value equals -1 when reading 255, so loop terminates before EOF

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putc, fputc, putchar

Function Prototype

int putc(int c, FILE *fp);
int fputc(int c, FILE *fp);
int putchar(int c);

• putc() can be macro and fputc always function