Using fscanf in binary mode

Question

Is using fscanf when opening a file in binary mode bad? I can't seem to find anything reasonable on the Internet. I am trying to open and read a PPM file and I've found this, but I am not sure if using fscanf is okay? And using netpbm is not okay, yeah.

Reading this with fread seems like a pain.

http://netpbm.sourceforge.net/doc/ppm.html This. I am most confused about: Each sample is represented in pure binary by either 1 or 2 bytes. So I guess I have to read it in binary mode. — darxsys, Oct 26 '14 at 16:15

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 26 '14 at 16:27

2

The scanf and fscanf functions are for reading characters, e.g., "1234", and converting them from a string to an integer. But integers are not stored as stings in a binary file. The actual bytes of the integer itself are stored. These need to be read directly into an integer with fread.

answered Oct 26 '14 at 16:27

ooga

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Okay, now I understand why it would work if I open the file in text mode if all the values are <= 255. That would be enough for me. – darxsys Oct 26 '14 at 21:17

Using fscanf in binary mode

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