Question

Give a pseudocode algorithm for determining the length of a file: that is, the number of bytes that are stored in the file.

Short answer

Answer: The pseudocode algorithm determines the length of a file by counting the number of bytes stored in it. The main steps of the algorithm are: 1. Initialize a counter variable to keep track of the total number of bytes read. 2. Open the file in binary mode. 3. Read the file byte by byte, incrementing the counter variable for each byte read until the end of the file is reached. 4. Close the file. 5. Print the counter variable as the length of the file, representing the total number of bytes read.

Step-by-step solution

Initialize the variables

Before the algorithm starts reading the file, initialize a counter variable to 0 that will be used to store the total number of bytes read.

Open the file

Open the file whose length needs to be determined. Make sure the file is opened in binary mode so that it reads the bytes.

Read the file byte by byte

Read the opened file byte by byte. For each byte read, increment the counter variable initialized in Step 1. Do this until the end of the file is reached.

Close the file

Once the end of the file is reached, close it to free up system resources and avoid potential issues.

Print the length of the file

Print the value of the counter variable, which represents the total number of bytes read, as the length of the file.