\377 character in c

c file-read
saidozcan picture saidozcan · Dec 12, 2012 · Viewed 21.3k times · Source

i am trying to read a file in c. i have a .txt file and it has that content:

file_one.txt file_two.txt file_three.txt file_four.txt

when i try to read this file with fopen i get this output:

file_one.txt file_two.txt file_three.txt file_four.txt\377

what does \377 mean? Here's my code.

    #include <stdio.h>

    #include <stdlib.h>

    int main(int argc, const char * argv[]){

        FILE *filelist;

        char ch;

        filelist=fopen("file-path", "rt");

        while (!feof(filelist)) {
            ch = getc(filelist);
            printf("%c",ch);
        }

        fclose(filelist);

        return 0;
    }

Answer

Daniel Fischer picture Daniel Fischer · Dec 12, 2012

The \377 is an octal escape sequence, decimal 255, all bits set. It comes from converting EOF - which usually has the value -1 - to a char, due to

while (!feof(filelist)) {

feof(filelist) only becoming true after you have tried to read past the file.

So at the end of the file, you enter the loop once more, and the getc() returns EOF.

Related questions

Reading from file using fgets

I am reading from file of format 1 32 43 23 32 43 123 43 54 243 123 2222 2 Here is my code snippet. string[100]; while(!feof(fp)) fgets(string,100,fp) Now, when I put every string, in the last string I am getting repetition and some more ambiguities (like something else …

Read More
How to compare an ASCII value

I want to store the ASCII value of a letter into a variable, how can I do this? for example : r ASCII variable = 82 main() { character = "character read from a file"; variable= "r ascii"; //(in this case 82), the problem is that …

Read More
Clearest way to read and print .txt file lines in C

There are a bunch of ways describing how to use various methods to print out lines of a text file on this site: Posix-style, reading IP addresses, Fixed line length. They all seem to be tailored to a specific example. …

Read More