fread

 

C

Language

Headers

Type support

Program utilities

Variadic function support

Error handling

Dynamic memory management

Date and time utilities

Strings library

Algorithms

Numerics

Input/output support

Localization support

Atomic operations (C11)

Thread support (C11)

Technical Specifications

 

File input/output

Functions
File access
fopenfopen_s (C11) freopenfreopen_s (C11) fwide (C95)	setbuf setvbuf fclose fflush
Direct input/output
fread
fwrite
Unformatted input/output
fgetc fgets fputc fputs getchar getsgets_s (until C11)(since C11) putchar puts ungetc	fgetwcgetwc (C95)(C95) fgetws (C95) fputwcputwc (C95)(C95) fputws (C95) getwchar (C95) putwchar (C95) ungetwc (C95)
Formatted input
scanffscanfsscanfscanf_sfscanf_ssscanf_s (C11)(C11)(C11) wscanffwscanfswscanfwscanf_sfwscanf_sswscanf_s (C95)(C95)(C95)(C11)(C11)(C11)	vscanfvfscanfvsscanfvscanf_svfscanf_svsscanf_s (C99)(C99)(C99)(C11)(C11)(C11) vwscanfvfwscanfvswscanfvwscanf_svfwscanf_svswscanf_s (C99)(C99)(C99)(C11)(C11)(C11)
Formatted output
printffprintfsprintfsnprintfprintf_sfprintf_ssprintf_ssnprintf_s (C99)(C11)(C11)(C11)(C11) wprintffwprintfswprintfwprintf_sfwprintf_sswprintf_ssnwprintf_s (C95)(C95)(C95)(C11)(C11)(C11)(C11)	vprintfvfprintfvsprintfvsnprintfvprintf_svfprintf_svsprintf_svsnprintf_s (C99)(C11)(C11)(C11)(C11) vwprintfvfwprintfvswprintfvwprintf_svfwprintf_svswprintf_svsnwprintf_s (C95)(C95)(C95)(C11)(C11)(C11)(C11)
File positioning
ftell
fgetpos
fseek
fsetpos
rewind
Error handling
clearerr
feof
ferror
perror
Operations on files
remove
rename
tmpfiletmpfile_s (C11)
tmpnamtmpnam_s (C11)

 

Defined in header <stdio.h>
size_t fread( void          *buffer, size_t size, size_t count,               FILE          *stream );		(until C99)
size_t fread( void *restrict buffer, size_t size, size_t count,               FILE *restrict stream );		(since C99)

Reads up to count objects into the array buffer from the given input stream stream as if by calling fgetc size times for each object, and storing the results, in the order obtained, into the successive positions of buffer, which is reinterpreted as an array of unsigned char. The file position indicator for the stream is advanced by the number of characters read.

If an error occurs, the resulting value of the file position indicator for the stream is indeterminate. If a partial element is read, its value is indeterminate.

Parameters

buffer	-	pointer to the array where the read objects are stored
size	-	size of each object in bytes
count	-	the number of the objects to be read
stream	-	the stream to read

Return value

Number of objects read successfully, which may be less than count if an error or end-of-file condition occurs.

If size or count is zero, fread returns zero and performs no other action.

fread does not distinguish between end-of-file and error, and callers must use feof and ferror to determine which occurred.

Example

Run this code

#include <stdio.h>
 
enum { SIZE = 5 };
int main(void)
{
    double a[SIZE] = {1.,2.,3.,4.,5.};
    FILE *fp = fopen("test.bin", "wb"); // must use binary mode
    fwrite(a, sizeof *a, SIZE, fp); // writes an array of doubles
    fclose(fp);
 
    double b[SIZE];
    fp = fopen("test.bin","rb");
    size_t ret_code = fread(b, sizeof *b, SIZE, fp); // reads an array of doubles
    if(ret_code == SIZE) {
        puts("Array read successfully, contents: ");
        for(int n = 0; n < SIZE; ++n) printf("%f ", b[n]);
        putchar('\n');
    } else { // error handling
       if (feof(fp))
          printf("Error reading test.bin: unexpected end of file\n");
       else if (ferror(fp)) {
           perror("Error reading test.bin");
       }
    }
 
    fclose(fp);
}

Output:

Array read successfully, contents: 
1.000000 2.000000 3.000000 4.000000 5.000000

References

• C11 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2011):

• 7.21.8.1 The fread function (p: 335)

• C99 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1999):

• 7.19.8.1 The fread function (p: 301)

• C89/C90 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1990):

• 4.9.8.1 The fread function

See also

scanffscanfsscanfscanf_sfscanf_ssscanf_s (C11)(C11)(C11)	reads formatted input from stdin, a file stream or a buffer (function)
fgets	gets a character string from a file stream (function)
fwrite	writes to a file (function)