How to use the fgets() function in C

The fgets() function in C reads up to n characters from the stream (file stream or standard input stream) to a string str. The fgets() function keeps on reading characters until:

(n-1) characters have been read from the stream.
a newline character is encountered.
end of file (EOF) is reached.

fgets terminates at the newline character but appends it at the end of the string str. The function also appends the terminating null character at the end of the passed string.

Syntax

char* fgets(char* str, int n, FILE* stream);

Arguments
- char* str: pointer to an initialized string in which characters are copied.
- int n: number of characters to copy.
- FILE* stream: pointer to the file stream, this can be replaced by stdin when reading from standard input.
Return Type: On successful read, the pointer to str is returned. If there was an error or the end of file character is encountered before any content could be read, a NULL pointer is returned.

Examples

fgets is safe to use in comparison to gets since it checks for character array str bounds. gets keeps on reading characters from the users, until a newline character is encountered.

main.c

file.txt

#include <stdio.h>
int main(){
  char str[20];
  
  fgets(str, 20, stdin); // read from stdin
  puts(str); // print read content out to stdout
  
  // open the file
  FILE *f = fopen("file.txt" , "r"); 
  
  // if there was an error
  if(f == NULL){
    perror("Error opening file"); // print error
    return(-1); 
  }
  // if there was no error
  else{ 
    fgets(str, 20, f); // read from file
    puts(str); // print read content out to stdout
  }
  
  fclose(f); // close file
  
  return(0);
}

Enter the input below

Code input area

Free Resources