C Exercises: Delete a specific line from a file

Last update on March 20 2025 12:32:30 (UTC/GMT +8 hours)

8. Delete Specific Line from File

Write a program in C to delete a specific line from a file.

Assume that the content of the file test.txt is :                                                                       
test line 1                                                                                                   
test line 2                                                                                                   
test line 3                                                                                                   
test line 4

Sample Solution:

C Code:

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

#define MAX 256

  int main() 
  {
        int lno, ctr = 0;
        char ch;
        FILE *fptr1, *fptr2;
		char fname[MAX];
        char str[MAX], temp[] = "temp.txt";
		printf("\n\n Delete a specific line from a file :\n");
		printf("-----------------------------------------\n"); 
		printf(" Input the file name to be opened : ");
		scanf("%s",fname);		
        fptr1 = fopen(fname, "r");
        if (!fptr1) 
		{
                printf(" File not found or unable to open the input file!!\n");
                return 0;
        }
        fptr2 = fopen(temp, "w"); // open the temporary file in write mode 
        if (!fptr2) 
		{
                printf("Unable to open a temporary file to write!!\n");
                fclose(fptr1);
                return 0;
        }
        printf(" Input the line you want to remove : ");
        scanf("%d", &lno);
		lno++;
        // copy all contents to the temporary file except the specific line
        while (!feof(fptr1)) 
        {
            strcpy(str, "\0");
            fgets(str, MAX, fptr1);
            if (!feof(fptr1)) 
            {
                ctr++;
                /* skip the line at given line number */
                if (ctr != lno) 
                {
                    fprintf(fptr2, "%s", str);
                }
            }
        }
        fclose(fptr1);
        fclose(fptr2);
        remove(fname);  		// remove the original file 
        rename(temp, fname); 	// rename the temporary file to original name
/*------ Read the file ----------------*/
   fptr1=fopen(fname,"r"); 
            ch=fgetc(fptr1); 
          printf(" Now the content of the file %s is : \n",fname); 
          while(ch!=EOF) 
            { 
                printf("%c",ch); 
                 ch=fgetc(fptr1); 
            }
        fclose(fptr1);
/*------- End of reading ---------------*/
        return 0;

  }

Sample Output:

 Delete a specific line from a file :                                                                         
-----------------------------------------                                                                     
 Input the file name to be opened : test.txt                                                                  
 Input the line you want to remove : 2                                                                        
 Now the content of the file test.txt are :                                                                   
                                                                                                              
test line 1                                                                                                   
test line 3                                                                                                   
test line 4

Flowchart:

For more Practice: Solve these Related Problems:

Write a C program to delete multiple specified lines from a file based on user input.
Write a C program to remove lines that contain a specific keyword from a file.
Write a C program to delete the first and last lines from a file and then display the updated content.
Write a C program to remove every even-numbered line from a file using file I/O operations.

C Programming Code Editor:

Previous: Write a program in C to count number of words and characters in a file.
Next: Write a program in C to replace a specific line with another text in a file.