Practical Programming, 3rd Edition

Chapter 10Reading and Writing Files

Data is often stored in plain-text files, which can be organized in several different ways. For example, the rainfall amounts in Oregon for each separate day in a study period might be stored one value per line in a file, using a newline as a delimiter to separate the values and make the data easier for humans to read. Alternatively, each line might store the values for an entire week or month, separating values within a line using a delimiter such as a space, tab, or comma.

Often, data organization is more complex. For example, a study might keep track of the heights, weights, and ages of the participants. Each record can appear on a line by itself, with the pieces of data in each record separated by delimiters. ...