[preeengles]

I want to arrange the records in a file in ascending order. Is there any predefined function for this? If there's none, can anyone give me anything (a tutorial link, snippet, sample code, or algorithm, etc.) that would be helpful in solving my problem?

Thanks in advance.

P.S. Sorry about the double post. Our connection's slow so I refreshed the page and the other post was created. Sorry

This post has been edited by preeengles: 20 April 2009 - 05:31 AM

[junxuan]

im not sure how u can modify the file directly, but u could try reading the values in the file, sort, delete the contents of the file and finally put the sorted data back in.

[preeengles]

I've thought of the same thing but I think it would be too time consuming if I used that method. Maybe there's a predefined function for it or something...

[junxuan]

im not sure about c, but im quite sure c++ doesnt have one.

btw time consuming meaning the algorithm is time consuming or writing the code?

This post has been edited by junxuan: 20 April 2009 - 06:27 AM

[janotte]

preeengles, on 20 Apr, 2009 - 05:08 AM, said:

I've thought of the same thing but I think it would be too time consuming if I used that method. Maybe there's a predefined function for it or something...

Could you detail exactly what it is you want to have happen.

At this point it isn't very clear how you want to sort the contents of a file without bringing it into memory.

I suspect we may not be communicating effectively.

[preeengles]

janotte, on 20 Apr, 2009 - 05:33 AM, said:

Could you detail exactly what it is you want to have happen.

At this point it isn't very clear how you want to sort the contents of a file without bringing it into memory.

I suspect we may not be communicating effectively.

Well, yeah I guess...Maybe you should see my code...This is due today so please, please help!

void disp_all()
{
   record stud;
   int i, rec_num = 0;
   FILE *fp1;
/************************************************************/
   //this part here has something to do with counting the number of records in the file

   rewind(fp);
   clrscr();
	if((fp1=fopen("new.dat","wb")) == NULL)
	{
		printf("\n\nUnable to Open new.dat File - exiting\n\n");
		exit(1);
	}

	while(fread(&stud, sizeof(stud), 1, fp))
	{
		if(stud.snum > 0)
		{
			fwrite(&stud, sizeof(stud), 1, fp1);
			rec_num++;
		}
   }

   fclose(fp);
   fclose(fp1);
   if((remove("std.dat")) != 0)
   {
	  printf("\n\nError! Obsolete file: std.dat, was not deleted - exiting\n\n");
	  exit(1);
   }
   else
   {
	  rename("new.dat", "std.dat");
	  if((fp=fopen("std.dat","rb+")) == NULL)
	  {
			if((fp = fopen("std.dat", "wb+")) == NULL)
			{
				printf("\n\nUnable to Open std.dat File - exiting\n\n");
				getch();
			exit(1);
		 }
	  }
   }
/************************************************************/
   //this part displays the records
   rewind(fp);
   printf("STUDENT#\t%-16s%-16s%-12s%-12s%-12s\n\n","LAST NAME","FIRST NAME","MI","BDAY", "COURSE  ");
   while(fread(&stud,sizeof(stud),1,fp))
   {
	  if(stud.snum > 0)
	  {
	 
		 printf("%lld\t", stud.snum);	//student number
		 printf("%-16s", stud.lname);
		 printf("%-16s", stud.fname);
		 printf("%-12s", stud.mi);
		 printf("%-12s", stud.bday);
		 printf("%-12s\n", stud.course);
	  }
   }
   printf("\n\nThere are currently %d student records\n\n", rec_num);
   printf("\n\nPress any key to go back to menu.");
   getch();
}

That part that displays the records? How should I edit it so that it will display the records in ascending order based on student number?

[janotte]

So I take it you have a struct somewhere called 'stud'?

The easiest way would be to create an array of structs then sort the array then output the sorted array.

Have a read here:
http://www.cplusplus...ial/structures/

Make any sense?

[baavgai]

janotte, on 21 Apr, 2009 - 07:40 AM, said:

So I take it you have a struct somewhere called 'stud'?

Well, a typedef called record, that references a struct, at least.

You have to read the data into an array to sort it. You should reasonably have a few functions that look like this:

void displayRecords(record studList[], int size) {
	int i;
	
	printf("STUDENT#\t%-16s%-16s%-12s%-12s%-12s\n\n","LAST NAME","FIRST NAME","MI","BDAY", "COURSE  ");
	for (i=0; i<size; i++) {
		printf("%lld\t", studList[i].snum);
		printf("%-16s", studList[i].lname);
		printf("%-16s", studList[i].fname);
		printf("%-12s", studList[i].mi);
		printf("%-12s", studList[i].bday);
		printf("%-12s\n", studList[i].course);
	}
	printf("\n\nThere are currently %d student records\n\n", size);
	printf("\n\nPress any key to go back to menu.");
}

int loadRecords(char *fileName, record studList[]) { 
	record stud;
	int readCount;
	FILE *fp;
	
	if((fp=fopen(fileName,"rb")) == NULL) { return 0; }

	readCount = 0;
	while(fread(&stud,sizeof(stud),1,fp)) {
		if(stud.snum > 0) { studList[readCount++] = stud; }
	}
	return readCount;
}

void sortRecords(record studList[], int size) { /* your code here */ }

I've given too much away already. Learn how to sort arrays.

Good luck.

This post has been edited by baavgai: 21 April 2009 - 08:16 AM