File Concept

A file is a collection of related data stored in a particular area on the disk. Programs can be design to perform the read and write operations on these files. The I\O system of c++ handles file operations which are very much similar to the console input and output operations. It uses file streams as an interface between the programs and the files. The stream that supplies data to the program is known as input stream and the one that receives data from the program is known as output stream. In other words, the input stream extracts (or reads) data from the file and the output stream inserts (or writes) data to the file. 

CLASSES FOR FILE STREAM OPERATIONS

The I\O system of c++ contains a set of classes that define the file handling methods. These include ifstream, ofstream and fstream. These classes are derived from the corresponding iostream class. These classes, design to manage the disk files, are declared in fstream and therefore, we must include this file in any program that uses files.

Classes for file stream