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Unexpected Results When Using `fgets` with Large Input in C - Buffer Handling guide

👀 Views: 11 đŸ’Ŧ Answers: 1 📅 Created: 2025-06-22
c fgets buffer file-io C

I've encountered a strange issue with I've been researching this but After trying multiple solutions online, I still can't figure this out... I need help solving I'm working on a project and hit a roadblock. After trying multiple solutions online, I still can't figure this out. I'm working with an scenario with `fgets` when trying to read large input from a file. My goal is to read lines of text, but when the line exceeds the buffer size, I expect `fgets` to handle it gracefully. However, it seems that in some cases, I'm getting unexpected results or even truncation of the data. Here's what I've implemented so far: ```c #include <stdio.h> #include <stdlib.h> #define BUFFER_SIZE 128 int main() { FILE *file = fopen("input.txt", "r"); if (!file) { perror("Failed to open file"); return EXIT_FAILURE; } char buffer[BUFFER_SIZE]; while (fgets(buffer, sizeof(buffer), file)) { printf("Read: %s", buffer); } fclose(file); return EXIT_SUCCESS; } ``` The `input.txt` file might contain lines longer than 128 characters. I expected `fgets` to read a line up to the buffer size and then stop, but I noticed that sometimes additional data appears to be mixed into the next read. This doesn't happen consistently, which makes it difficult to debug. I have also tried using `clearerr(file)` before each `fgets` call, but that didn't resolve the question. In addition to this, I'm aware that `fgets` might leave the newline character in the buffer. Can anyone clarify whether `fgets` might be reading beyond the buffer size in certain conditions, or is there something else that I might be missing? Any insights into how buffer handling works with `fgets` in this context would be greatly appreciated. I'm using GCC version 10.2.0 on Linux, if that helps. Am I missing something obvious? For context: I'm using C on Linux. Any help would be greatly appreciated! My development environment is macOS. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. I'm coming from a different tech stack and learning C. Thanks for taking the time to read this! I appreciate any insights!