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+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /><title>Binary Input and Output</title><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.74.0" /><meta name="keywords" content=" ISO C++ , library " /><link rel="home" href="../spine.html" title="The GNU C++ Library Documentation" /><link rel="up" href="fstreams.html" title="Chapter 27. File Based Streams" /><link rel="prev" href="fstreams.html" title="Chapter 27. File Based Streams" /><link rel="next" href="bk01pt11ch27s03.html" title="More Binary Input and Output" /></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">Binary Input and Output</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="fstreams.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">Chapter 27. File Based Streams</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="bk01pt11ch27s03.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr /></div><div class="sect1" lang="en" xml:lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a id="manual.io.filestreams.binary"></a>Binary Input and Output</h2></div></div></div><p>
+ </p><p>The first and most important thing to remember about binary I/O is
+ that opening a file with <code class="code">ios::binary</code> is not, repeat
+ <span class="emphasis"><em>not</em></span>, the only thing you have to do. It is not a silver
+ bullet, and will not allow you to use the <code class="code"><</>></code>
+ operators of the normal fstreams to do binary I/O.
+ </p><p>Sorry. Them's the breaks.
+ </p><p>This isn't going to try and be a complete tutorial on reading and
+ writing binary files (because "binary"
+ <a class="ulink" href="#7" target="_top">covers a lot of ground)</a>, but we will try and clear
+ up a couple of misconceptions and common errors.
+ </p><p>First, <code class="code">ios::binary</code> has exactly one defined effect, no more
+ and no less. Normal text mode has to be concerned with the newline
+ characters, and the runtime system will translate between (for
+ example) '\n' and the appropriate end-of-line sequence (LF on Unix,
+ CRLF on DOS, CR on Macintosh, etc). (There are other things that
+ normal mode does, but that's the most obvious.) Opening a file in
+ binary mode disables this conversion, so reading a CRLF sequence
+ under Windows won't accidentally get mapped to a '\n' character, etc.
+ Binary mode is not supposed to suddenly give you a bitstream, and
+ if it is doing so in your program then you've discovered a bug in
+ your vendor's compiler (or some other part of the C++ implementation,
+ possibly the runtime system).
+ </p><p>Second, using <code class="code"><<</code> to write and <code class="code">>></code> to
+ read isn't going to work with the standard file stream classes, even
+ if you use <code class="code">skipws</code> during reading. Why not? Because
+ ifstream and ofstream exist for the purpose of <span class="emphasis"><em>formatting</em></span>,
+ not reading and writing. Their job is to interpret the data into
+ text characters, and that's exactly what you don't want to happen
+ during binary I/O.
+ </p><p>Third, using the <code class="code">get()</code> and <code class="code">put()/write()</code> member
+ functions still aren't guaranteed to help you. These are
+ "unformatted" I/O functions, but still character-based.
+ (This may or may not be what you want, see below.)
+ </p><p>Notice how all the problems here are due to the inappropriate use
+ of <span class="emphasis"><em>formatting</em></span> functions and classes to perform something
+ which <span class="emphasis"><em>requires</em></span> that formatting not be done? There are a
+ seemingly infinite number of solutions, and a few are listed here:
+ </p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul type="disc"><li><p>“<span class="quote">Derive your own fstream-type classes and write your own
+ <</>> operators to do binary I/O on whatever data
+ types you're using.</span>”
+ </p><p>
+ This is a Bad Thing, because while
+ the compiler would probably be just fine with it, other humans
+ are going to be confused. The overloaded bitshift operators
+ have a well-defined meaning (formatting), and this breaks it.
+ </p></li><li><p>
+ “<span class="quote">Build the file structure in memory, then
+ <code class="code">mmap()</code> the file and copy the
+ structure.
+ </span>”
+ </p><p>
+ Well, this is easy to make work, and easy to break, and is
+ pretty equivalent to using <code class="code">::read()</code> and
+ <code class="code">::write()</code> directly, and makes no use of the
+ iostream library at all...
+ </p></li><li><p>
+ “<span class="quote">Use streambufs, that's what they're there for.</span>”
+ </p><p>
+ While not trivial for the beginner, this is the best of all
+ solutions. The streambuf/filebuf layer is the layer that is
+ responsible for actual I/O. If you want to use the C++
+ library for binary I/O, this is where you start.
+ </p></li></ul></div><p>How to go about using streambufs is a bit beyond the scope of this
+ document (at least for now), but while streambufs go a long way,
+ they still leave a couple of things up to you, the programmer.
+ As an example, byte ordering is completely between you and the
+ operating system, and you have to handle it yourself.
+ </p><p>Deriving a streambuf or filebuf
+ class from the standard ones, one that is specific to your data
+ types (or an abstraction thereof) is probably a good idea, and
+ lots of examples exist in journals and on Usenet. Using the
+ standard filebufs directly (either by declaring your own or by
+ using the pointer returned from an fstream's <code class="code">rdbuf()</code>)
+ is certainly feasible as well.
+ </p><p>One area that causes problems is trying to do bit-by-bit operations
+ with filebufs. C++ is no different from C in this respect: I/O
+ must be done at the byte level. If you're trying to read or write
+ a few bits at a time, you're going about it the wrong way. You
+ must read/write an integral number of bytes and then process the
+ bytes. (For example, the streambuf functions take and return
+ variables of type <code class="code">int_type</code>.)
+ </p><p>Another area of problems is opening text files in binary mode.
+ Generally, binary mode is intended for binary files, and opening
+ text files in binary mode means that you now have to deal with all of
+ those end-of-line and end-of-file problems that we mentioned before.
+ An instructive thread from comp.lang.c++.moderated delved off into
+ this topic starting more or less at
+ <a class="ulink" href="http://groups.google.com/groups?oi=djq&selm=an_436187505" target="_top">this</a>
+ article and continuing to the end of the thread. (You'll have to
+ sort through some flames every couple of paragraphs, but the points
+ made are good ones.)
+ </p></div><div class="navfooter"><hr /><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="fstreams.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="fstreams.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="bk01pt11ch27s03.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">Chapter 27. File Based Streams </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../spine.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> More Binary Input and Output</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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