Final answer:
The statement is true; fscanf uses the file handle, not the external file name, which aligns with standard file handling operations in programming languages like C where a file pointer is used for reading data.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statement that the fscanf function references the name of the file handle but NOT the name of the external file is true. In programming, especially in languages like C, when you want to read data from a file, you must first open the file using functions such as fopen, which creates a file pointer. This pointer is then used in subsequent file operations, and it is what is passed to the fscanf function, not the actual name of the external file.
The fscanf function is used primarily to parse data from a text file and convert and store them into specified variable types based on format specifiers. It uses the file pointer that has already been associated with an external file through the file opening process. This is a standard procedure in file handling operations in many programming languages.