Using Copy( ) to Copy a File
Copy( ) copies the file specified by sourceFileName to the file specified by destFileName. The first version copies the file only if destFileName does not already exist. In the second form, if overwrite is...
Category: Using Input Output
Using Input Output
Random Access Files
You can also access the contents of a file in random order. One way to do this is to use the Seek( ) method defined by FileStream. This method allows you to set the...
Reading and Writing Binary Data
To read and write binary values of the C# built-in types, you will use BinaryReader and BinaryWriter. When using these streams, it is important to understand that this data is read and written using...
Using a StreamReader
To create a character-based input stream, wrap a byte stream inside a StreamReader. StreamReader defines several constructors. A frequently used one is shown here: StreamReader(Stream stream) Here, stream is the name of an open...
Using StreamWriter
To create a character-based output stream, wrap a Stream object (such as a FileStream) inside a StreamWriter. StreamWriter defines several constructors. One of its most popular is shown here: StreamWriter(Stream stream) Here, stream is...
Character-Based File Input Output
Although byte-oriented file handling is quite common, it is possible to use character-based streams for this purpose. The advantage to the character streams is that they operate directly on Unicode characters. Thus, if you...
Using FileStream to Copy a File
One advantage to the byte-oriented I/O used by FileStream is that you can use it on any type of file—not just those that contain text. For example, the following program copies any type of...
Reading Bytes from a FileStream
FileStream defines two methods that read bytes from a file: ReadByte( ) and Read( ). To read a single byte from a file, use ReadByte( ), whose general form is shown here: int ReadByte(...
Opening and Closing a File
To create a byte stream linked to a file, create a FileStream object. FileStream defines several constructors. Perhaps its most commonly used one is shown here: FileStream(string path, FileMode mode) Here, path specifies the...
Writing Console Output
Console.Out and Console.Error are objects of type TextWriter. Console output is most easily accomplished with Write( ) and WriteLine( ), with which you are already familiar. Versions of these methods exist that output each...
Using ReadKey( )
The .NET Framework includes a method in Console that enables you to read individual keystrokes directly from the keyboard, in a non-line-buffered manner. This method is called ReadKey( ). When it is called, it...
Reading Console Input
Console.In is an instance of TextReader, and you can use the methods and properties defined by TextReader to access it. However, you will usually use the methods provided by Console, which automatically read from...
The Character Stream Wrapper Classes
To create a character stream, wrap a byte stream inside one of the character stream wrappers. At the top of the character stream hierarchy are the abstract classes TextReader and TextWriter. TextReader handles input,...
The Byte Stream Classes
Several concrete byte streams are derived from Stream. Those defined in the System.IO namespace are shown here: Stream Class Description BufferedStream Wraps a byte stream and adds buffering. Buffering provides a performance enhancement in...
The Stream Classes
The .NET Framework defines both byte and character stream classes. However, the character stream classes are really just wrappers that convert an underlying byte stream to a character stream, handling any conversion automatically. Thus,...
Streams
C# programs perform I/O through streams. A stream is an abstraction that either produces or consumes information. A stream is linked to a physical device by the I/O system. All streams behave in the...