reading last n lines from file in c/c++ - c++

Question

I have seen many posts but didn't find something like i want.
I am getting wrong output :
ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ...... // may be this is EOF character
Going into infinite loop.
My algorithm:
Go to end of file.
decrease position of pointer by 1 and read character by
character.
exit if we found our 10 lines or we reach beginning of file.
now i will scan the full file till EOF and print them //not implemented in code.
code:
#include<iostream>
#include<stdio.h>
#include<conio.h>
#include<stdlib.h>
#include<string.h>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
FILE *f1=fopen("input.txt","r");
FILE *f2=fopen("output.txt","w");
int i,j,pos;
int count=0;
char ch;
int begin=ftell(f1);
// GO TO END OF FILE
fseek(f1,0,SEEK_END);
int end = ftell(f1);
pos=ftell(f1);
while(count<10)
{
pos=ftell(f1);
// FILE IS LESS THAN 10 LINES
if(pos<begin)
break;
ch=fgetc(f1);
if(ch=='\n')
count++;
fputc(ch,f2);
fseek(f1,pos-1,end);
}
return 0;
}
UPD 1:
changed code: it has just 1 error now - if input has lines like
3enil
2enil
1enil
it prints 10 lines only
line1
line2
line3ÿine1
line2
line3ÿine1
line2
line3ÿine1
line2
line3ÿine1
line2
PS:
1. working on windows in notepad++
this is not homework
also i want to do it without using any more memory or use of STL.
i am practicing to improve my basic knowledge so please don't post about any functions (like tail -5 tc.)
please help to improve my code.

Answer 1

Comments in the code
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
int main(void)
{
FILE *in, *out;
int count = 0;
long int pos;
char s[100];
in = fopen("input.txt", "r");
/* always check return of fopen */
if (in == NULL) {
perror("fopen");
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
out = fopen("output.txt", "w");
if (out == NULL) {
perror("fopen");
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
fseek(in, 0, SEEK_END);
pos = ftell(in);
/* Don't write each char on output.txt, just search for '\n' */
while (pos) {
fseek(in, --pos, SEEK_SET); /* seek from begin */
if (fgetc(in) == '\n') {
if (count++ == 10) break;
}
}
/* Write line by line, is faster than fputc for each char */
while (fgets(s, sizeof(s), in) != NULL) {
fprintf(out, "%s", s);
}
fclose(in);
fclose(out);
return 0;
}

Answer 2

There are a number of problems with your code. The most
important one is that you never check that any of the functions
succeeded. And saving the results an ftell in an int isn't
a very good idea either. Then there's the test pos < begin;
this can only occur if there was an error. And the fact that
you're putting the results of fgetc in a char (which results
in a loss of information). And the fact that the first read you
do is at the end of file, so will fail (and once a stream enters
an error state, it stays there). And the fact that you can't
reliably do arithmetic on the values returned by ftell (except
under Unix) if the file was opened in text mode.
Oh, and there is no "EOF character"; 'ÿ' is a perfectly valid
character (0xFF in Latin-1). Once you assign the return value
of fgetc to a char, you've lost any possibility to test for
end of file.
I might add that reading backwards one character at a time is
extremely inefficient. The usual solution would be to allocate
a sufficiently large buffer, then count the '\n' in it.
EDIT:
Just a quick bit of code to give the idea:
std::string
getLastLines( std::string const& filename, int lineCount )
{
size_t const granularity = 100 * lineCount;
std::ifstream source( filename.c_str(), std::ios_base::binary );
source.seekg( 0, std::ios_base::end );
size_t size = static_cast<size_t>( source.tellg() );
std::vector<char> buffer;
int newlineCount = 0;
while ( source
&& buffer.size() != size
&& newlineCount < lineCount ) {
buffer.resize( std::min( buffer.size() + granularity, size ) );
source.seekg( -static_cast<std::streamoff>( buffer.size() ),
std::ios_base::end );
source.read( buffer.data(), buffer.size() );
newlineCount = std::count( buffer.begin(), buffer.end(), '\n');
}
std::vector<char>::iterator start = buffer.begin();
while ( newlineCount > lineCount ) {
start = std::find( start, buffer.end(), '\n' ) + 1;
-- newlineCount;
}
std::vector<char>::iterator end = remove( start, buffer.end(), '\r' );
return std::string( start, end );
}
This is a bit weak in the error handling; in particular, you
probably want to distinguish the between the inability to open
a file and any other errors. (No other errors should occur,
but you never know.)
Also, this is purely Windows, and it supposes that the actual
file contains pure text, and doesn't contain any '\r' that
aren't part of a CRLF. (For Unix, just drop the next to the
last line.)

Answer 3

This can be done using circular array very efficiently.
No additional buffer is required.
void printlast_n_lines(char* fileName, int n){
const int k = n;
ifstream file(fileName);
string l[k];
int size = 0 ;
while(file.good()){
getline(file, l[size%k]); //this is just circular array
cout << l[size%k] << '\n';
size++;
}
//start of circular array & size of it
int start = size > k ? (size%k) : 0 ; //this get the start of last k lines
int count = min(k, size); // no of lines to print
for(int i = 0; i< count ; i++){
cout << l[(start+i)%k] << '\n' ; // start from in between and print from start due to remainder till all counts are covered
}
}
Please provide feedback.

Answer 4

int end = ftell(f1);
pos=ftell(f1);
this tells you the last point at file, so EOF.
When you read, you get the EOF error, and the ppointer wants to move 1 space forward...
So, i recomend decreasing the current position by one.
Or put the fseek(f1, -2,SEEK_CUR) at the beginning of the while loop to make up for the fread by 1 point and go 1 point back...

Answer 5

I believe, you are using fseek wrong. Check man fseek on the Google.
Try this:
fseek(f1, -2, SEEK_CUR);
//1 to neutrialize change from fgect
//and 1 to move backward
Also you should set position at the beginning to the last element:
fseek(f1, -1, SEEK_END).
You don't need end variable.
You should check return values of all functions (fgetc, fseek and ftell). It is good practise. I don't know if this code will work with empty files or sth similar.

Answer 6

Use :fseek(f1,-2,SEEK_CUR);to back
I write this code ,It can work ,you can try:
#include "stdio.h"
int main()
{
int count = 0;
char * fileName = "count.c";
char * outFileName = "out11.txt";
FILE * fpIn;
FILE * fpOut;
if((fpIn = fopen(fileName,"r")) == NULL )
printf(" file %s open error\n",fileName);
if((fpOut = fopen(outFileName,"w")) == NULL )
printf(" file %s open error\n",outFileName);
fseek(fpIn,0,SEEK_END);
while(count < 10)
{
fseek(fpIn,-2,SEEK_CUR);
if(ftell(fpIn)<0L)
break;
char now = fgetc(fpIn);
printf("%c",now);
fputc(now,fpOut);
if(now == '\n')
++count;
}
fclose(fpIn);
fclose(fpOut);
}

Answer 7

I would use two streams to print last n lines of the file:
This runs in O(lines) runtime and O(lines) space.
#include<bits/stdc++.h>
using namespace std;
int main(){
// read last n lines of a file
ifstream f("file.in");
ifstream g("file.in");
// move f stream n lines down.
int n;
cin >> n;
string line;
for(int i=0; i<k; ++i) getline(f,line);
// move f and g stream at the same pace.
for(; getline(f,line); ){
getline(g, line);
}
// g now has to go the last n lines.
for(; getline(g,line); )
cout << line << endl;
}
A solution with a O(lines) runtime and O(N) space is using a queue:
ifstream fin("file.in");
int k;
cin >> k;
queue<string> Q;
string line;
for(; getline(fin, line); ){
if(Q.size() == k){
Q.pop();
}
Q.push(line);
}
while(!Q.empty()){
cout << Q.front() << endl;
Q.pop();
}

Answer 8

Here is the solution in C++.
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <exception>
#include <cstdlib>
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
auto& file = std::cin;
int n = 5;
if (argc > 1) {
try {
n = std::stoi(argv[1]);
} catch (std::exception& e) {
std::cout << "Error: argument must be an int" << std::endl;
std::exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
}
file.seekg(0, file.end);
n = n + 1; // Add one so the loop stops at the newline above
while (file.tellg() != 0 && n) {
file.seekg(-1, file.cur);
if (file.peek() == '\n')
n--;
}
if (file.peek() == '\n') // If we stop in the middle we will be at a newline
file.seekg(1, file.cur);
std::string line;
while (std::getline(file, line))
std::cout << line << std::endl;
std::exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
}
Build:
$ g++ <SOURCE_NAME> -o last_n_lines
Run:
$ ./last_n_lines 10 < <SOME_FILE>