hello, I am trying to write a program that makes 10 empty entries in my file, updating the first 3, and then asking the user which one to erase back to a blank entry, and then reprints the file contents again with the entry deleted. It seems to work okay ONLY if you delete the first entry, if you try to delete the 2nd or 3rd, the output goes all crazy! Any help would be greatly appreciated! :(

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

typedef struct person {
    char first_name[15];
    char last_name[15];
    char age[4];
    int accNum;
} Person;

int main(int argc, char * argv[])
{
    FILE * file = fopen("/Users/MYNAME/Desktop/person.txt", "r+");
    
    Person blankEntry = {"No First Name", "No Last Name", "0", 0};
    Person person1 = blankEntry;
    
    printf("Records:\n");
    for(int i = 1; i <= 10; i++) {
        fwrite(blankEntry.first_name, 1, sizeof(blankEntry.first_name), file);
        fwrite(blankEntry.last_name, 1, sizeof(blankEntry.last_name), file);
        fwrite(blankEntry.age, 1, sizeof(blankEntry.age), file);
        fprintf(file, "%d", i);
        
        printf("%d. %s\t\t\t%10s%10s\n", i, blankEntry.first_name, blankEntry.last_name, blankEntry.age);
    }
    
    printf("\n\nUpdating Record:\n");
    fseek(file, SEEK_SET, 0);
    for(int i = 1; i <= 3; i++) {
        printf("Enter in first name, last name, and age: ");
        scanf("%s %s %s", person1.first_name, person1.last_name, person1.age);
        
        fwrite(person1.first_name, 1, sizeof(person1.first_name), file);
        fwrite(person1.last_name, 1, sizeof(person1.last_name), file);
        fwrite(person1.age, 1, sizeof(person1.age), file);
        fprintf(file, "%d", i);
    }
    
    printf("\n\nRecords:\n");
    printf("First Name:\t\tLast Name:\t\tAge:\n");
    fseek(file, SEEK_SET, 0);
    for(int i = 1; i <= 10; i++) {
        fread(person1.first_name, 1, sizeof(person1.first_name), file);
        fread(person1.last_name, 1, sizeof(person1.last_name), file);
        fread(person1.age, 1, sizeof(person1.age), file);
        fscanf(file, "%d", &person1.accNum);
        
        printf("%i. %s\t\t%10s%10s\n", person1.accNum, person1.first_name, person1.last_name, person1.age);
    }
    
    int deleteKey;
    printf("\n\nEnter in account number to delete: ");
    scanf("%i", &deleteKey);
    
    fseek(file, (deleteKey - 1) * sizeof(struct person), SEEK_SET);
    fwrite(person1.first_name, 1, sizeof(person1.first_name), file);
    fwrite(person1.last_name, 1, sizeof(person1.last_name), file);
    fwrite(person1.age, 1, sizeof(person1.age), file);
    //fwrite(&blankEntry, sizeof(struct person), 1, file);
    
    printf("\n\nRecords:\n");
    printf("First Name:\t\tLast Name:\t\tAge:\n");
    fseek(file, SEEK_SET, 0);
    for(int i = 1; i <= 10; i++) {
        fread(person1.first_name, 1, sizeof(person1.first_name), file);
        fread(person1.last_name, 1, sizeof(person1.last_name), file);
        fread(person1.age, 1, sizeof(person1.age), file);
        fscanf(file, "%d", &person1.accNum);
        
        printf("%i. %s\t\t%10s%10s\n", person1.accNum, person1.first_name, person1.last_name, person1.age);
    }
    
    fclose(file);
    
    return 0;
}

Hello.

Break it down a bit add a vector<Person> Records;

and fill it with the file data then edit it and then you can keep track of the record you change then use seekset to the file record you changed and write the new record.

Hummm I am not sure... but.... thinking in the symptom: "Only works if you delete the first entry"...

The following code:

fseek(file, (deleteKey - 1) * sizeof(struct person), SEEK_SET);

Are you sure the (deleteKey-1) * sizeof(struct person) is returning the expected value?

If its the first registry... so its 0... so... it will be the file start...

But.. if its 1+... maybe the "sizeof(struct person)" is not returning what you expect...

Try to debug this call and see if you got the exact what you want ( the size of a entry )....

I dont have a C compiler here, in my workplace... but I will give it a try when I come back home...

Hope it helps.

Why are using a fprintf there? You could just use fwrite and write the whole struct into the file, them read it with a Person struct.

Something like this (to write):

fwrite (&person1, 1, sizeof(Person), file);

And to read:

Person toRead;
fread(&toRead, 1, sizeof(Person), file);

Also, why are you using a char* to store age? Use an unsigned or an int instead.