C in a Nutshell

Name

getc

Synopsis

Reads a character from a file

#include <stdio.h>
intgetc( FILE *fp );

The getc() function is the same as fgetc(), except that it may be implemented as a macro, and may evaluate its argument more than once. If the argument is an expression with side effects, use fgetc() instead.

getc() returns the character read. A return value of EOF indicates an error or an attempt to read past the end of the file. In these cases, the function sets the file’s error or end-of-file flag as appropriate.

Example

FILE *inputs[16];
int nextchar, i = 0;

/* ... open 16 input streams ... */

do {
  nextchar =getc( inputs[i++] );       // Warning: getc() is a macro!
  /* ... process the character ... */
} while (i < 16);

The do...while statement in this example skips over some files in the array if getc() evaluates its argument more than once. Here is a safer version, without side effects in the argument to getc():

for ( i = 0; i < 16; i++ ) {
  nextchar =getc( inputs[i] );
  /* ... process the character ... */
}

See Also

fgetc(), fputc(), putc(), putchar(); the C99 functions to read and write wide characters: getwc(), fgetwc(), and getwchar(), putwc(), fputwc(), and putwchar(), ungetc(), ungetwc()