File reading in Golang
In Go, the ReadFile() function of the ioutil library is used to read data from a file. Using ioutil makes file reading easier as you don’t have to worry about closing files or using buffers.
1. Reading an entire file into memory
To read an entire file into a variable, use the ReadFile function from the ioutil library. This is the most basic type of file reading that can be required. The code below shows how to do this.
package mainimport ("fmt""io/ioutil")func main() {data, err := ioutil.ReadFile("file.txt")if err != nil {fmt.Println("File reading error", err)return}fmt.Println("Contents of file:")fmt.Println(string(data))}
The err variable gets an error description if an error occurs while reading the file. In the case of any problem, the error gets displayed to the user.
2. Reading file in bytes
Sometimes, it’s not feasible to read the whole file in one go, especially when the file size is too large. So, instead, we can read the file in chunks of set bytes. The following code reads the file in 3-byte chunks.
package mainimport ("bufio""flag""fmt""log""os")func main() {fptr := flag.String("fpath", "file.txt", "file path to read from")flag.Parse()f, err := os.Open(*fptr)if err != nil {log.Fatal(err)}defer func() {if err = f.Close(); err != nil {log.Fatal(err)}}()r := bufio.NewReader(f)b := make([]byte, 3)for {n, err := r.Read(b)if err != nil {fmt.Println("Error reading file:", err)break}fmt.Println(string(b[0:n]))}}
Explanation
- Line 14: opens the file using the path passed from the command line flag. The file is opened in variable
f. - Line 18: makes a function that defers closing the file.
- Line 23: initiates a new reader that reads the file.
- Line 24: makes an array of 3-bytes. This array holds the bytes read from our file.
- Line 25-32: repeatedly reads bytes from the file into the array (
r) until the end-of-file is reached; then, the bytes are printed.
3. Reading a file line by line
We can also read each line in a file separately. This method reduces strain on the memory as the entire file will not be read in one go.
package mainimport ("bufio""flag""fmt""log""os")func main() {fptr := flag.String("fpath", "file.txt", "file path to read from")flag.Parse()f, err := os.Open(*fptr)if err != nil {log.Fatal(err)}defer func() {if err = f.Close(); err != nil {log.Fatal(err)}}()s := bufio.NewScanner(f)for s.Scan() {fmt.Println(s.Text())}err = s.Err()if err != nil {log.Fatal(err)}}
Explanation
- Line 14: opens the file using the path passed from the command line flag. The file is opened in variable
f. - Line 23: creates a new scanner from the file.
- Line 24-26: scans the file and reads it line by line.
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