Read binary file using fread()

Question

I'm trying to read a binary file with fread() function.
I want to read 2 byte every time (UTF-16 file).
The relative code:

char words[2];
while(fread(&words, sizeof(words), 1, sFile))
//do somthing...

The information from the file is stored only in the first place of the array, and the second stay as zero. Any idea? Thanks

"the second stay as zero" --> because the data in the file is zero - every other byte. — chux
– chux, Commented Nov 9, 2018 at 19:42
How do you write to the file? How do you initialize the data you write? What does fread returns? What does fwrite (which I assume you use to write) return? Please try to create a Minimal, Complete, and Verifiable Example showing both writing and reading. — Some programmer dude
– Some programmer dude, Commented Nov 9, 2018 at 19:44
Try this: char words[2] = {0xaa}; and see if you observe change from 0xaa to some other value. — vasek
– vasek, Commented Nov 9, 2018 at 19:45
If the file contains UTF-16 encoded text written in the basic Latin alphabet (or using characters from the ASCII code set), then the UTF-16 values will be U+0020..U+007E, and those are encoded in UTF-16 as one byte containing 0x20..0x7E and the other containing 0x00. Assuming you're using Intel hardware, you have little-endian encoding, so the first byte might be 0x41 (A in ISO 8859-1) and the second would be 0x00. — Jonathan Leffler
– Jonathan Leffler, Commented Nov 9, 2018 at 19:47
@vasek Better to try char words[2] = {0xaa, 0x55}; and set both to non-zero. — chux
– chux, Commented Nov 9, 2018 at 19:47

puhs · Accepted Answer · 2018-11-09 19:55:30Z

2

Thank to you all, I found the mistake -
In UTF-16, every char is 2 byte, and the "regular" chars are with zero in the 2nd byte.
Again, thank you.

answered Nov 9, 2018 at 19:55

puhs

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1 Comment

Though, giving attribution is very much recommended, when writing answer based on what other people wrote.