Thanks for the advice. I changed the code in the main and tested the while(fscanf). i write the unsorted data to the new file webstats.sorted. I searched in text and the web for quicksort data stored in files. I found this particular quicksort code from a text. how can i sort the data by the ip address field if the ip has the '.'. Is it the same way as I did it with the ':' delimeter in the fscanf in main?

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

#define NUM_ELEMENTS 12123 /* really need to use a counter */

struct IP
{
    char ip[30];
    char requests[20];
    char bytes[30];
}stats;

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
        FILE *fp, *out;
    int index;
    char temp[51];
        char c;

        if((fp=fopen(argv[1],"r"))==NULL)
        {
        printf("%d Error: cannot open file\n", argc);
        exit(1);
        }

        if((out=fopen("webstats.sorted","w"))==NULL)
        {
                printf("Error:cannot open file for write.\n");
                exit(1);
        }

          for(index = 0; index < 13; index++)
          {
                fgets(temp, sizeof(temp), fp);
          } /* ignore the comments */

         printf("Writing unsorted data to disk.\n");
   /* c is the ':' delimeter */
     while(fscanf(fp, "%s %c %s %c %s", stats.ip, &c, stats.requests,
         &c, stats.bytes) != EOF)
        {
   /* write to the file out */
    fprintf(out, "%s %c %s %c %s\n", stats.ip, c, stats.requests,
                c, stats.bytes);
       }
                printf("%s %c %s %c %s\n", stats.ip, stats.requests,
                  stats.bytes); /* test - whats in the structure */

                printf("Sorting disk file.\n");
                quick_disk(out, NUM_ELEMENTS);

                fclose(fp); /* close the file */
                fclose(out);

    printf("List sorted.\n");

    return(0);

    }

void quick_disk(FILE *fp, int count)
    {
        qs_disk(fp, 0, count -1);
    }

    void qs_disk(FILE *fp, int left, int right)
    {
        long int i, j;
        char x[100];

        i = left; j = right;

        strcpy(x, getIP(fp, (long)(i+j)/2));

        do
        {
 while((strcmp(getIP(fp,i),x) < 0) && (i < right)) i++;
 while((strcmp(getIP(fp,j),x) > 0) && (j > left)) j--;

            if(i <= j)
            {
                swap_all_fields(fp, i, j);
                i++; j--;
            }
        } while(i <= j);

        if(left < j) qs_disk(fp, left, (int) j);
        if(i < right) qs_disk(fp, (int) i, right);
    }

    void swap_all_fields(FILE *fp, long i, long j)
    {
        char a[sizeof(stats)], b[sizeof(stats)];

        fseek(fp, sizeof(stats)*i, SEEK_SET);
                fread(a, sizeof(stats), 1, fp);

        fseek(fp, sizeof(stats)*j, SEEK_SET);
                fread(b, sizeof(stats), 1, fp);

        fseek(fp, sizeof(stats)*j, SEEK_SET);

                fwrite(a, sizeof(stats), 1, fp);
        fseek(fp, sizeof(stats)*i, SEEK_SET);
                fwrite(b, sizeof(stats), 1, fp);

    }

    char *getIP(FILE *fp, long rec)
    {
        struct IP *ip_address;

        ip_address = &stats;

        fseek(fp, rec*sizeof(stats), SEEK_SET);
        fread(ip_address, sizeof(stats), 1, fp);

        return stats.ip;
    }


gbilios