Question

I’ve been wondering about this one. Most books I’ve read shows that when you open a file and you found that the file is not existing, you should put an error that there’s no such file then exit the system…

FILE *stream = NULL; 
stream = fopen("student.txt", "rt");
if (stream==NULL) {
    printf(“Cannot open input file\n”);
    exit(1);
else {printf("\nReading the student list directory. Wait a moment please...");

But I thought that instead of doing that.. why not automatically create a new one when you found that the file you are opening is not existing. Even if you will not be writing on the file upon using the program (but will use it next time). I’m not sure if this is efficient or not. I’m just new here and have no programming experience whatsoever so I’m asking your opinion what are the advantages and disadvantages of creating a file upon trying to open it instead of exiting the system as usually being exampled on the books.

FILE *stream = NULL; 
stream = fopen("student.txt", "rt");
     if (stream == NULL) stream = fopen("student.txt", "wt");
     else {
          printf("\nReading the student list directory. Wait a moment please...");

Your opinion will be highly appreciated. Thank you.

Answer 1

Because from your example, it seems like it’s an input file, if it doesn’t exist, no point creating it.

For example if the program is supposed to open a file, then count how many vowels in it, then I don’t see much sense of creating the file if it doesn’t exist.

my $0.02 worth.