Read a line from text file and delete it

Question

0.00/5 (No votes)

See more:

I want to read a text file line by line, perform some checks, and if the line is not required, delee it. I have done the code for reading line, but I don't know how to delete that line if it is not required by me. Please help me find the simplest method for deleting the line. Here is my code snippet for reading the line:

C

char string[16];
int number;
DWORD dwWritten;
FILE *fp;
HANDLE hFile;
hFile=CreateFile("File.txt",GENERIC_READ|GENERIC_WRITE,FILE_SHARE_READ|FILE_SHARE_WRITE,0,CREATE_ALWAYS,FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL,0);
WriteFile(hFile,"Line 1\n\nLine 2\n\n",strlen("Line 1\n\nLine 2\n\n"),&dwWritten,0); //write two lines to the file
fp = fopen("File.txt", "r");
while (fscanf(fp, " %s %d", string, &number) > 0) {
        if(number == 2)
        {
         //here I want to delete this line in which number == 2
        }
}

Posted 1-Apr-13 21:42pm

ayesha hassan

Updated 1-Apr-13 21:52pm

CPallini

v2

Add a Solution

1 solution

Add a Solution

Add your solution here

Treat my content as plain text, not as HTML

Preview 0

…

Existing Members

Sign in to your account

...or Join us

Download, Vote, Comment, Publish.

Your Email
Password
Forgot your password?

Your Email
This email is in use. Do you need your password?
Optional Password

I have read and agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
Please subscribe me to the CodeProject newsletters

When answering a question please:

Read the question carefully.
Understand that English isn't everyone's first language so be lenient of bad spelling and grammar.
If a question is poorly phrased then either ask for clarification, ignore it, or edit the question and fix the problem. Insults are not welcome.
Don't tell someone to read the manual. Chances are they have and don't get it. Provide an answer or move on to the next question.

Let's work to help developers, not make them feel stupid.

This content, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

OriginalGriff · Answer 1 · 2013-04-01T21:46:00

Solution 1

You can't "delete a line" from a text file - to do this, you will have to open a new output file, and copy over the lines you don't want to delete. At the end, close all the files, rename the original to a temporary name, then rename the output file as the original, and delete the original.

Posted 1-Apr-13 21:46pm

OriginalGriff

Comments

ayesha hassan 2-Apr-13 3:48am

Thank you so much. looks useful to me but sounds complex :( I am new in this, can you give me an example?

CPallini 2-Apr-13 3:56am

Is not that difficult: open the original file for reading, another one for writing. Read the original file line by line. If the line has to be deleted then don't write it to the output file, otherwise write it. close both files. Delete the original one and rename the output one.

OriginalGriff 2-Apr-13 4:08am

:thumbsup:

I prefer to rename the original (to .BAK) but then I hate losing information! :laugh:

ayesha hassan 2-Apr-13 4:34am

Thank you so much CPallini.
I followed your instructions and worte this code. Now the line I wanted to delete is successfully removed in my output file, but the last step of deleting the original file and renaming the output file is not working. Please tell me what wrong am I doing.
char ip[32];
int port;
DWORD dwWritten;
FILE *fp;
HANDLE hFile,tempFile;
hFile=CreateFile("Hell.txt",GENERIC_READ|GENERIC_WRITE,FILE_SHARE_READ|FILE_SHARE_WRITE,0,CREATE_ALWAYS,FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL,0);
tempFile=CreateFile("temp.txt",GENERIC_READ|GENERIC_WRITE,FILE_SHARE_READ|FILE_SHARE_WRITE,0,CREATE_ALWAYS,FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL,0);
WriteFile(hFile,"10.0.1.25 524192\r\n\r\n10.0.1.25 524193\r\n\r\n",strlen("10.0.1.25 524192\r\n\r\n10.0.1.25 524193\r\n\r\n"),&dwWritten,0);
fp = fopen("Hell.txt", "r+");

while (fscanf(fp, " %s %d", ip, &port) > 0)
{
printf("\nLine1:");
printf("ip: %s, port: %d", ip, port);
char portbuff[32], space[]=" ";
sprintf(portbuff, "%i",port);
strcat(ip," ");
strcat(ip,portbuff);
if(port == 524192)
printf("\n Delete this Line now");
else
WriteFile(tempFile,ip,strlen(ip),&dwWritten,0);
}

remove ("Hell.txt");
rename("temp.txt","Hell.txt");

OriginalGriff 2-Apr-13 4:50am

You need to close the files before you can delete or rename them - otherwise they are in use by your program and can't be touched!

ayesha hassan 2-Apr-13 4:54am

Thank you :) I closed the file, then checked. even the rename() function succeeds still the file is not renamed or deleted :(

OriginalGriff 2-Apr-13 5:07am

Did you close everything? You have two handles and a file pointer...

ayesha hassan 2-Apr-13 4:59am

Could it be an issue due to the attributes I used while using CreateFile()?

ayesha hassan 2-Apr-13 6:38am

I see two strange behaviours here.
1. Placing remove() before rename() gives an error while rename()ing the file.
2. Placing remove() after rename() does not rename the file but generates a new file :\

ayesha hassan 2-Apr-13 6:48am

And now another issue, sometimes, rename() fails as well, once in twenty tries.

ayesha hassan 2-Apr-13 6:54am

Below is the latest code that I am trying:
char ip[32];
int port;
DWORD dwWritten;
FILE *fpOriginal, *fpOutput;
HANDLE hFile,tempFile;
hFile=CreateFile("Hell.txt",GENERIC_READ|GENERIC_WRITE,FILE_SHARE_READ|FILE_SHARE_WRITE,0,CREATE_ALWAYS,FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL,0);
tempFile=CreateFile("temp.txt",GENERIC_READ|GENERIC_WRITE,FILE_SHARE_READ|FILE_SHARE_WRITE,0,CREATE_ALWAYS,FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL,0);
WriteFile(hFile,"10.0.1.25 524192\r\n\r\n10.0.1.25 524193\r\n\r\n",strlen("10.0.1.25 524192\r\n\r\n10.0.1.25 524193\r\n\r\n"),&dwWritten,0);
fpOriginal = fopen("Hell.txt", "r+");
fpOutput = fopen("temp.txt", "w+");

while (fscanf(fpOriginal, " %s %d", ip, &port) > 0)
{
printf("\nLine1:");
printf("ip: %s, port: %d", ip, port);
char portbuff[32], space[]=" ";
sprintf(portbuff, "%i",port);
strcat(ip," ");
strcat(ip,portbuff);
if(port == 524192)
printf("\n Delete this Line now");
else
WriteFile(tempFile,ip,strlen(ip),&dwWritten,0);
}

fclose(fpOriginal);
fclose(fpOutput);
CloseHandle(hFile);
CloseHandle(tempFile);
remove("Hell.txt");
if(!(rename("temp.txt","Bye.txt")))
{
printf("\ncould not rename\n");
}
else
printf("\nRename Done\n");
//remove ("Hell.txt");