Unable to open a file with fopen

Question

I ve been trying to open a file and output text  but I keep getting errors   So I thought I would start at the very beginning and just try opening the file   This is my code    include  lt stdio h gt   include  lt stdlib h gt   define CORRECT PARAMETERS 3  int main void        FILE  file      file   fopen  TestFile1 txt    r        if  file    NULL            printf  Error              fclose file       When I run the file   Error  gets printed to the console and that s it   The TestFile1 txt is in the same location as my  exe   How do I fix this

User · Answer

Try using an absolute path for the filename  And if you are using Windows  use getlasterror   to see the actual error message

User · Answer

In addition to the above  you might be interested in displaying your current directory   int MAX PATH LENGTH   80  char  path MAX PATH LENGTH   getcwd path  MAX PATH LENGTH   printf  Current Directory    s   path     This should work without issue on a gcc glibc platform    I m most familiar with that type of platform   There was a question posted here that talked about getcwd  amp  Visual Studio if you re on a Windows type platform

User · Answer

Your executable s working directory is probably set to something other than the directory where it is saved   Check your IDE settings

User · Answer

The output folder directory must have been configured to some other directory in IDE  Either you can change that or replace the filename with entire file path   Hope this helps

User · Answer

Well  now you know there is a problem  the next step is to figure out what exactly the error is  what happens when you compile and run this     include  lt stdio h gt   include  lt stdlib h gt   int main void        FILE  file      file   fopen  TestFile1 txt    r        if  file    NULL          perror  Error          else         fclose file

User · Answer

Instead of printf  Error     you should try perror  Error   which may print the actual reason of failure  like Permission Problem  Invalid Argument  etc

User · Answer

A little error checking goes a long way -- you can always test the value of errno or call perror   or strerror   to get more information about why the fopen   call failed   Otherwise the suggestions about checking the path are probably correct    most likely you re not in the directory you think you are from the IDE and don t have the permissions you expect

User · Answer

How are you running the file  Is it from the command line or from an IDE  The directory that your executable is in is not necessarily your working directory   Try using the full path name in the fopen and see if that fixes it  If so  then the problem is as described   For example   file   fopen  c   MyDirectory  TestFile1 txt    r    file   fopen   full path to TestFile1 txt    r      Or open up a command window and navigate to the directory where your executable is  then run it manually   As an aside  you can insert a simple  for Windows or Linux UNIX BSD etc respectively    system   cd   system  pwd     before the fopen to show which directory you re actually in

[c] Unable to open a file with fopen()

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