What is fgets() in C?

fgets() is a standard C library function that is used to read a string of characters from a file at the location indicated by the file pointer. Below is the declaration of the fgets() function:

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

Return value

if the read operation from the file is successful, the fgets() function return the string that is read. EOFEnd-of-File is returned if there is an error when reading from the file.

Parameters of the fgets() function

  • str: Pointer to the character array to store the string read from the file.
  • size: Maximum number of characters that can be read from the file.
  • stream: Pointer to the file from which the character is to be read.

Example

Consider the code snippet below, which uses fgets() to read the content of a file:

main.c
fgetsExample.txt
#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
  FILE * fPointer;
  char str[100];
  fPointer = fopen ("fgetsExample.txt", "r");//opening file
  
  while( !feof(fPointer) )//checking EOF
  {
    fgets(str, 100, fPointer);
    if(str!=NULL)//if EOF returned
    {
      printf("%s",str);
    }
  
  }
  fclose(fPointer);
  
  return 0;
}

The fgets() function is used in line 12, which reads and subsequently prints the content of the file fgetsExample.txt on the screen.

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