Question

What three steps must be taken by a program when it uses a file?

Short answer

Answer: The three main steps are opening the file, performing operations on the file, and closing the file.

Step-by-step solution

Opening the File

Before a program can interact with a file, the file must first be opened. During this process, the program establishes a connection to the file or creates the file if it does not already exist. The program also sets the access mode, which determines whether the file can be read from, written to, or both.

Performing Operations on the File

Once the file is open, the program can perform various operations on it, such as reading the file's content, writing new content to the file, or modifying existing content. The operations a program can perform on a file depend on the access mode specified when opening the file. For example, if the file was opened in 'read-only' mode, the program can only read the content but not modify it.

Closing the File

After the program finishes performing the necessary operations on the file, it is essential to close the file. Closing the file releases the resources allocated by the system and ensures that any changes made to the file are saved. If a file is not closed properly, it could cause data loss or unexpected errors in the program.