Final answer:
The function used to read a number of characters from an open file stream is fread().
Step-by-step explanation:
The function used to read a number of characters from an open file stream is fread().
Specifically, fread() is employed to read data from a file, with the syntax fread(buffer, sizeof(char), 10, file), exemplifying the extraction of 10 characters from a file stream named 'file'. Here, 'buffer' represents the memory location where the read data is stored, 'sizeof(char)' denotes the size of each element (in this case, characters), '10' indicates the number of elements to be read, and 'file' designates the target file stream. This function is instrumental in efficient file handling within C programs, facilitating tailored data extraction based on application requirements.
fread() is a function in the C programming language that reads a specified number of elements, each with a specified size, from a file stream.
For example, to read 10 characters from a file stream called 'file', you can use the following code:
fread(buffer, sizeof(char), 10, file);