What is a file pointer?

81. What is a file pointer?
Ans: The pointer to a FILE data type is called as a stream pointer or a file pointer. A file pointer points to the block of information of the stream that had just been opened.

82. How is fopen()used ?
Ans: The function fopen() returns a file pointer. Hence a file pointer is declared and it is assigned
as
FILE *fp;
fp= fopen(filename,mode);
filename is a string representing the name of the file and the mode represents:
“r” for read operation
“w” for write operation
“a” for append operation
“r+”,”w+”,”a+” for update operation

83How is a file closed ?
Ans: A file is closed using fclose() function
Eg. fclose(fp);
Where fp is a file pointer.

84. What is a random access file?
Ans:
A file can be accessed at random using fseek() function
fseek(fp,position,origin);
fp file pointer
position number of bytes offset from origin
origin 0,1 or 2 denote the beginning ,current position or end of file respectively.

85. What is the purpose of ftell ?
Ans: The function ftell() is used to get the current file represented by the file pointer.
ftell(fp);
returns a long integer value representing the current file position of the file pointed by the
file pointer fp.If an error occurs ,-1 is returned.

86. What is the purpose of rewind() ?
Ans: The function rewind is used to bring the file pointer to the beginning of the file.
Rewind(fp);
Where fp is a file pointer.Also we can get the same effect by
feek(fp,0,0);

87. Difference between a array name and a pointer variable?
Ans: A pointer variable is a variable where as an array name is a fixed address and is not a
variable. A
pointer variable must be initialized but an array name cannot be initialized. An array name being a constant value , ++ and — operators cannot be applied to it.

88. Represent a two-dimensional array using pointer?
Ans:
Address of a[I][j] Value of a[I][j]
&a[I][j]
or
a[I] + j
or
*(a+I) + j
*&a[I][j] or a[I][j]
or
*(a[I] + j )
or
*( * ( a+I) +j )

89. Difference between an array of pointers and a pointer to an array?
Ans:
Array of pointers
1- Declaration is: data_type *array_name[size];
2-Size represents the row size.
3- The space for columns may be dynamically

Pointers to an array
1-Declaration is data_type ( *array_name)[size];
2-Size represents the column size.

90. Can we use any name in place of argv and argc as command line arguments ?
Ans: yes we can use any user defined name in place of argc and argv;