Cannot close binary file in C

Question

I tried to make a program that reads ELEM structures from keyboard and writes them to a file (file.bin) and then writes unique items to another file (aux.bin). The problem is that it can not close opened files in void function(), can you please tell me what I did wrong?

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>

typedef struct element{
    char name[80];
    int p;
}ELEM;

void clear_stdin()
{
    char str[255];
    fgets(str,255,stdin);
}

int create()
{
    FILE *f;
    int d=0;
    int c;
    int n=0;
    ELEM s;
    f=fopen("file.bin","wb");
    if(f==NULL)
    {
        printf("create(): Could not open file.bin for read\n");
        return;
    }
    do{
    printf("Add elements to file?:\n1 - yes\n2 - no\n");
    scanf("%d",&c);
    if (c==1)
    {
        printf("Name=");
        clear_stdin();
        fgets(s.name,80,stdin);
        printf("P=");
        scanf("%d",&s.p);
        fwrite(&s,sizeof(ELEM),1,f);
        n++;
    }
    else
        d=1;
    } while(d==0);
    fclose(f);
    return n;
}

void show(int n)
{
    FILE *f;
    ELEM s;
    int i=0;
    if(n==0)
        return;
    f=fopen("file.bin","rb");
    while(i<n)
    {
        fread(&s,sizeof(ELEM),1,f);
        puts(s.name);
        printf("\t%d\n",s.p);
        i++;
    }
    fclose(f);
}

int add(int n)
{
    FILE *f;
    int d=0;
    int c;
    ELEM s;
    f=fopen("file.bin","ab");
    if(f==NULL)
    {
        printf("add(): Could not open file.bin for append\n");
        return;
    }
    do{
    printf("Add elements to file?:\n1 - yes\n2 - no\n");
    scanf("%d",&c);
    if (c==1)
    {
        printf("Name=");
        clear_stdin();
        fgets(s.name,80,stdin);
        printf("P=");
        scanf("%d",&s.p);
        fwrite(&s,sizeof(ELEM),1,f);
        n++;
    }
    else
        d=1;
    } while(d==0);
    fclose(f);
    return n;
}


void func(int n)
{
    FILE *f,*g;
    ELEM v[20],w;
    int i=0,j,k,x=0,s,gn=0,test;
    f=fopen("file.bin","rb");
    g=fopen("aux.bin","wb");
    if((g==NULL)||(f==NULL))
    {
        if(g==NULL)
            printf("function() : Could not open aux.bin for write\n");
        if(f==NULL)
            printf("function() : Could not open file.bin for read\n");
        return;
    }
    i=0;
    while(i<n)
    {
        fread(&v[i],sizeof(ELEM),1,f);

        i++;
    }
    for(j=0;j<n;j++)
    {
        for(k=j+1;k<n;k++)
        {
            if(v[j].p==v[k].p)
                x=1;

        }
        if(x==0)
        {
            s=strcmp(v[j].name,v[k].name);
            if(s!=0)
            {
                fwrite(&v[j],sizeof(ELEM),1,g);
                fread(&w,sizeof(ELEM),1,g);

                gn++;
            }
        }
        x=0;
    }
    test=fclose(g);
    if(test!=0)
        printf("function() : failed to closed file g\n");
    test=fclose(f);
    if(test!=0)
        printf("function() : failed to closed file f\n");
    g=fopen("aux.bin","rb");
    if(g==NULL)
    {
        printf("function() : Could not open aux.bin for read\n");
        return;
    }
    if(gn==0)
        return;
    i=0;
    while(i<gn)
    {
        fread(&w,sizeof(ELEM),1,g);
        puts(w.name);
        printf("\t%d\n",w.p);
        i++;
    }
    fclose(g);
}

int main()
{
    int k=0,r,n;
    do{
        printf("1 - create file\n2 - add elements to file\n3 - show elements\n4 - put unique elements in another file\n5 - exit program\n");
        scanf("%d",&r);
        switch(r)
        {
            case 1 : n=create(); break;
            case 2 : n=add(n); break;
            case 3 : show(n); break;
            case 4 : func(n); break;
            case 5 : k=1; break;
            default : printf("Command unrecognized!\n");
        }
    } while(k==0);
    return 0;
}

EDIT: I edited the code

aux.bin was never created, that's why it freezes at fread(&w,sizeof(ELEM),1,g); But why it can't create aux.bin ? I don't get any error messages but when I open the project folder, there's just file.bin.

---

EDIT: I switched form MinGW and Visual Studio to gcc, and now it creates both files, everything works excepting fflush(stdin) . I replaced gets(s.name); to fgets(s.name,80,stdin); .

---

EDIT: I replaced fflush(stdin) with a function that clears the stdin and now it works flawlessly with gcc in linux. In windows it doesn't work.

Answer 1

You seem to be expecting your file handle pointers to become NULL when you close the file, that's not true.

Note that the fclose() function takes the pointer (an argument of type FILE *), so all it gets is the pointer's value, it cannot change the caller's pointer. For that to be possible, you would have to call it with a FILE **, i.e. a pointer to a pointer.

It's your responsibility to set the pointer to NULL after the fclose() call, if (and only if) fclose() said it succeeded, by returning 0. See the manual page for details.