Function Details : fgetc

intfgetc(FILE * stream) ;

Return Type : int

Integer type (typically 4 bytes, -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647)

Read about return values of fgetc function .

1st Parameter Type : FILE *

Pointer to FILE structure for file operations

1st Parameter

Pointer to the file stream from which a character is to be read
The FILE pointer parameter in fgetc must:
● Be valid pointer from previous successful fopen;
● Point to a stream opened in read mode ("r", "r+", "w+", "a+");
● Not be NULL (undefined behavior);
● Not be invalidated by previous fclose;
After successful read:
● Stream position advances by one character;
● Parameter remains valid for next read;
After EOF/error:
● Stream position remains unchanged;
● Parameter remains valid but needs error checking;

Read more about parameters of fgetc in parameters section

The fgetcfunction in C language reads the next character from the specified file stream.

fgetc is a fundamental character input function that reads a single character from a stream, making it ideal for character-by-character processing of files. It's distinguished by its behavior of returning an int (not char) to properly handle both regular characters (0-255) and EOF (-1), which helps avoid potential sign extension issues. The function integrates with the stdio.h error handling system - particularly feof and ferror for checking read status, and pairs naturally with ungetc for pushing characters back into the stream. It's often used in scenarios requiring precise character-level control or when parsing formatted text files.

To Summarize the Workflow:

1.
Takes FILE pointer as parameter
2.
Reads single character from input stream
3.
Returns character as unsigned char converted to int (0-255)
4.
Returns EOF (-1) on end-of-file or error
5.
Advances file position indicator on successful read

Read more about return type and value offgetc function in return section.

The fgetcfunction takes 1 parameter:

•
FILE * `stream`: Pointer to the file stream from which a character is to be read
The FILE pointer parameter in fgetc must:
● Be valid pointer from previous successful fopen;
● Point to a stream opened in read mode ("r", "r+", "w+", "a+");
● Not be NULL (undefined behavior);
● Not be invalidated by previous fclose;
After successful read:
● Stream position advances by one character;
● Parameter remains valid for next read;
After EOF/error:
● Stream position remains unchanged;
● Parameter remains valid but needs error checking;

The fgetc function return value :

On success returns character read converted to unsigned char then to int (0-255);
On failure returns EOF (-1) with appropriate indicator set (error or EOF);
Important: in both failure cases (EOF or error) fgetc() returns EOF (-1)
The only way to distinguish between the two failure types is to check the indicators using feof() and ferror()

Output

This example demonstrates the basic usage of `fgetc`. It reads a file character by character and prints each character to the console.