How to resolve the algorithm Truncate a file step by step in the C++ programming language
How to resolve the algorithm Truncate a file step by step in the C++ programming language
Table of Contents
Problem Statement
Truncate a file to a specific length. This should be implemented as a routine that takes two parameters: the filename and the required file length (in bytes).
Truncation can be achieved using system or library calls intended for such a task, if such methods exist, or by creating a temporary file of a reduced size and renaming it, after first deleting the original file, if no other method is available. The file may contain non human readable binary data in an unspecified format, so the routine should be "binary safe", leaving the contents of the untruncated part of the file unchanged. If the specified filename does not exist, or the provided length is not less than the current file length, then the routine should raise an appropriate error condition. On some systems, the provided file truncation facilities might not change the file or may extend the file, if the specified length is greater than the current length of the file. This task permits the use of such facilities. However, such behaviour should be noted, or optionally a warning message relating to an non change or increase in file size may be implemented.
Let's start with the solution:
Step by Step solution about How to resolve the algorithm Truncate a file step by step in the C++ programming language
The provided C++ code is a function called truncateFile
that takes a filename and a maximum size as input and truncates the file to the specified size.
Explanation of the Code:
-
Header Inclusions:
- The code includes necessary header files:
<string>
for string handling<fstream>
for file handling
- The code includes necessary header files:
-
Function Definition (truncateFile):
- The
truncateFile
function takes two parameters:filename
: The name of the file to truncatemax_size
: The maximum size to which the file should be truncated
- The
-
Input File Handling:
- An input file stream (
input
) is created to read the contents of the original file (filename
). - The input stream is opened in binary mode using
std::ios::binary
.
- An input file stream (
-
Output File Handling:
- A new filename is generated by appending ".trunc" to the original filename (
outfile
). - An output file stream (
appendFile
) is created to write the truncated contents to the new file. - The output file is opened in append mode using
ios_base::out
.
- A new filename is generated by appending ".trunc" to the original filename (
-
Truncating the File:
- A loop runs for a maximum of
max_size
iterations to control the truncation. - In each iteration:
- A single character is read from the input file into the
buffer
variable. - The character is written to the output file using
appendFile
.
- A single character is read from the input file into the
- A loop runs for a maximum of
-
Closing File Streams:
- After truncation, both input and output file streams are closed to release system resources.
-
Main Function:
- The
main
function calls thetruncateFile
function with "test.txt" as the filename and 5 as the maximum size. This truncates the test.txt file to contain only the first 5 characters from the original file.
- The
Source code in the cpp programming language
#include <string>
#include <fstream>
using namespace std;
void truncateFile(string filename, int max_size) {
std::ifstream input( filename, std::ios::binary );
char buffer;
string outfile = filename + ".trunc";
ofstream appendFile(outfile, ios_base::out);
for(int i=0; i<max_size; i++) {
input.read( &buffer, sizeof(buffer) );
appendFile.write(&buffer,1);
}
appendFile.close(); }
int main () {
truncateFile("test.txt", 5);
return 0;
}
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