C++ Primer Plus, Fourth Edition

File Input and Output

Most computer programs work with files. Word processors create document files. Database programs create and search files of information. Compilers read source code files and generate executable files. A file itself is a bunch of bytes stored on some device, perhaps magnetic tape, perhaps an optical disk, floppy disk, or hard disk. Typically, the operating system manages files, keeping track of their locations, their sizes, when they were created, and so on. Unless you're programming on the operating system level, you normally don't have to worry about those things. What you do need is a way to connect a program to a file, a way to have a program read the contents of a file, and a way to have a program create and write to ...