std::fread

 

C++

Language

Standard library headers

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Utilities library

Strings library

Containers library

Algorithms library

Iterators library

Numerics library

Input/output library

Localizations library

Regular expressions library (C++11)

Atomic operations library (C++11)

Thread support library (C++11)

Filesystem library (C++17)

Technical Specifications

 

Input/output library

I/O manipulators

C-style I/O

Buffers

basic_streambuf

basic_filebuf

basic_stringbuf

strstreambuf (deprecated)

Streams

Abstractions

ios_base

basic_ios

basic_istream

basic_ostream

basic_iostream

File I/O

basic_ifstream

basic_ofstream

basic_fstream

String I/O

basic_istringstream

basic_ostringstream

basic_stringstream

Array I/O

istrstream (deprecated)

ostrstream (deprecated)

strstream (deprecated)

Types

streamoff

streamsize

fpos

Error category interface

iostream_category (C++11)

io_errc (C++11)

 

C-style I/O

Functions
File access
fopen freopen fclose fflush	fwide setbuf setvbuf
Direct input/output
fread
fwrite
Unformatted input/output
fgetc fgets fputc fputs getchar gets (until C++14) putchar puts ungetc	fgetwc fgetws fputwc fputws getwchar putwchar ungetwc
Formatted input/output
scanffscanfsscanf vscanfvfscanfvsscanf (C++11)(C++11)(C++11) printffprintfsprintfsnprintf (C++11) vprintfvfprintfvsprintfvsnprintf (C++11)	wscanffwscanfswscanf vwscanfvfwscanfvswscanf (C++11)(C++11)(C++11) wprintffwprintfswprintf vwprintfvfwprintfvswprintf
File positioning
ftell
fgetpos
fseek
fsetpos
rewind
Error handling
clearerr
feof
ferror
perror
Operations on files
remove
rename
tmpfile
tmpnam

 

Defined in header <cstdio>
std::size_t fread( void* buffer, std::size_t size, std::size_t count, std::FILE* stream );

Reads up to count objects into the array buffer from the given input stream stream as if by calling std::fgetc size times for each object, and storing the results, in the order obtained, into the successive positions of buffer, which is reinterpreted as an array of unsigned char. The file position indicator for the stream is advanced by the number of characters read.

If the objects are not TriviallyCopyable, the behavior is undefined.

If an error occurs, the resulting value of the file position indicator for the stream is indeterminate. If a partial element is read, its value is indeterminate.

Parameters

buffer	-	pointer to the first object in the array to be read
size	-	size of each object in bytes
count	-	the number of the objects to be read
stream	-	input file stream to read from

Return value

Number of objects read successfully, which may be less than count if an error or end-of-file condition occurs.

If size or count is zero, fread returns zero and performs no other action.

Example

Run this code

#include <iostream>
#include <cstdio>
#include <fstream>
#include <vector>
int main()
{
    // prepare file
    std::ofstream("test.txt") << 1 << ' ' << 2 << '\n';
    std::FILE* f = std::fopen("test.txt", "r");
 
    std::vector<char> buf(4); // char is trivally copyable
    std::fread(&buf[0], sizeof buf[0], buf.size(), f);
 
    for(char n : buf)
        std::cout << n;
 
    std::vector<std::string> buf2; // string is not trivially copyable
// this would result in undefined behavior
//    std::fread(&buf2[0], sizeof buf2[0], buf2.size(), f);
}

Output:

1 2

See also

scanffscanfsscanf	reads formatted input from stdin, a file stream or a buffer (function)
fgets	gets a character string from a file stream (function)
fwrite	writes to a file (function)
C documentation for fread