pset4 resize: setting bfSize and biSizeImage hexadecimal values

Question

I'm having difficulty setting the bfSize and biSizeImage header values. I should have the correct formulas for both values, however when I write either value to the output file I lose the leftmost byte. The problem may have to do with the fputc() function expecting an unsigned char.

Below is the code and some temporary print statements which output the hex values of biSizeImage and bfSize:

// set bitmap width of output file
int outBiWidth = inBiWidth * factor;
fseek(outptr, 18, SEEK_SET);
fputc(outBiWidth, outptr);

// set bitmap height of output file
int outBiHeight = inBiHeight * factor;
fseek(outptr, 22, SEEK_SET);
fputc(outBiHeight, outptr);

// set bitmap image size of output file
int outBiSizeImage = ((outBiWidth * sizeof(RGBTRIPLE)) + outpadding) * abs(outBiHeight);
fseek(outptr, 34, SEEK_SET);
fputc(outBiSizeImage, outptr);
printf("Out Image Size: %x\n", outBiSizeImage);

// set file size of output file
int outBfSize = sizeof(BITMAPFILEHEADER) + sizeof(BITMAPINFOHEADER) + outBiSizeImage;
fseek(outptr, 2, SEEK_SET);
fputc(outBfSize, outptr);
printf("Out File Size: %x\n", outBfSize);

When I execute resize, the print statements show the correct hex values, however the comparison between the output file and the staff's file tells a different story:

Help is much appreciated, thanks!

Answer 1

Well, that's an unusual way to try and do that. You're writing to the headers in the file! Seems like the hard way to update the headers.

Don't you think it would be easy to read the headers into a struct in memory, modify the appropriate values in memory, and then write the header structs out to the output file?

Here's an efficiency tip. Making changes in memory is universally faster than rewriting data in a file, especially a spinning hard disk (up to 1000 times or more faster), and eliminates a LOT of overhead that's done under the covers.

There's also the issue that the code is using fputc to write out the data. The vars that contain the data are of type int, but fputc() writes an unsigned char. These two data types are different in size, type and signage. I'll put this in the unpredictable results category.

If this answers your question, please click on the check mark to accept. Let's keep up on forum maintenance. ;-)