function
<cstdio>

fread

size_t fread ( void * ptr, size_t size, size_t count, FILE * stream );
Read block of data from stream
Reads an array of count elements, each one with a size of size bytes, from the stream and stores them in the block of memory specified by ptr.

The position indicator of the stream is advanced by the total amount of bytes read.

The total amount of bytes read if successful is (size*count).

Parameters

ptr
Pointer to a block of memory with a size of at least (size*count) bytes, converted to a void*.
size
Size, in bytes, of each element to be read.
size_t is an unsigned integral type.
count
Number of elements, each one with a size of size bytes.
size_t is an unsigned integral type.
stream
Pointer to a FILE object that specifies an input stream.

Return Value

The total number of elements successfully read is returned.
If this number differs from the count parameter, either a reading error occurred or the end-of-file was reached while reading. In both cases, the proper indicator is set, which can be checked with ferror and feof, respectively.
If either size or count is zero, the function returns zero and both the stream state and the content pointed by ptr remain unchanged.
size_t is an unsigned integral type.

Example

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/* fread example: read an entire file */
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

int main () {
  FILE * pFile;
  long lSize;
  char * buffer;
  size_t result;

  pFile = fopen ( "myfile.bin" , "rb" );
  if (pFile==NULL) {fputs ("File error",stderr); exit (1);}

  // obtain file size:
  fseek (pFile , 0 , SEEK_END);
  lSize = ftell (pFile);
  rewind (pFile);

  // allocate memory to contain the whole file:
  buffer = (char*) malloc (sizeof(char)*lSize);
  if (buffer == NULL) {fputs ("Memory error",stderr); exit (2);}

  // copy the file into the buffer:
  result = fread (buffer,1,lSize,pFile);
  if (result != lSize) {fputs ("Reading error",stderr); exit (3);}

  /* the whole file is now loaded in the memory buffer. */

  // terminate
  fclose (pFile);
  free (buffer);
  return 0;
}


This code loads myfile.bin into a dynamically allocated memory buffer, which can be used to manipulate the content of a file as an array.

See also

fwrite
Write block of data to stream (function )
fgetc
Get character from stream (function )
fscanf
Read formatted data from stream (function )

C++