Develop Reference

How can I use Streamwriter to write in one line and whenever called again, to essentially delete that line and write on it again

Another way to say it is this: I want a program that logs the amount of times you've pressed a button. To do this I'd need a StreamWriter to write to a text document the number of times and a StreamReader to read the number of times as to display it when you start up the program.
If there is an easier way, feel free to share it. But my question is:
How can I make it so that it only writes in one line, and whenever it wants to write again to it, deletes the whole thing and puts in the new input?

The below will write to the file C:\log.txt. By setting the 2nd parameter to false, it will overwrite the contents of the file.
using (StreamWriter writer = new StreamWriter("C:\\log.txt", false))
{
writer.Write("blah");
}
To guarantee the file is always overwritten every time it is used, place the StreamWriter call in a different method like so:
public void DoStuff()
{
for(int i = 0; i < 20; i++)
{
WriteStuff("blah" + i);
}
}
private void WriteStuff(string text)
{
using (StreamWriter writer = new StreamWriter("C:\\log.txt", false))
{
writer.Write(text);
}
}

how to clear text file content c#

i want clear text file contet with this method
private void writeTextFile(string filePath, string text)
{
if (!File.Exists(filePath))
{
File.Create(filePath).Close();
}
using (StreamWriter tw = new StreamWriter(filePath))
{
File.WriteAllText(filePath,"");
tw.WriteLine(text);
tw.Close();
}
}
but i get this error
The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.
but this not open in anywhere ,
please help me
thank's

That's because you're creating a StreamWriter, then using File.WriteAllText. Your File is already being accessed with the StreamWriter.
File.WriteAllText does just that, writes the entire string you pass to it to a file. StreamWriter is unnecessary if you're going to use File.WriterAllText.
If you don't care about overwriting an existing file, you can do this:
private void writeTextFile(string filePath, string text)
{
File.WriteAllText(filePath, text);
}
If you want to use StreamWriter (which, by the way, File.WriteAllText uses, it just hides it), and append to the file, you can do this (from this answer):
using(StreamWriter sw = File.AppendText(path))
{
tw.WriteLine(text);
}

You can use StreamWriter for creating a file for write and use Truncate to write with clearing previous content.
StreamWriter writeFile;
writeFile = new StreamWriter(new IsolatedStorageFileStream(filename, FileMode.Truncate, myIsolatedStorage));
writeFile.WriteLine("String");
writeFile.Close();
This use FileMode.Truncate
Truncate Specifies that an existing file it to be opened and then truncated so that its size is zero bytes.

Assuming that your file already exists and you want to clear its contents before populating it or whatever, I found the best way to do this with StreamWriter is..
// this line does not create test.txt file, assuming that it already exists, it will remove the contents of test.txt
Dim sw As System.IO.StreamWriter = New System.IO.StreamWriter(Path.GetFullPath(C:\test.txt), False)
// this line will now be inserted into your test.txt file
sw.Write("hey there!")

// I decided to use this solution
// this section is to clear MyFile.txt
using(StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(#"MyPath\MyFile.txt", false))
{
foreach(string line in listofnames)
{
sw.Write(""); // change WriteLine with Write
}
sw.Close();
}
// and this section is to copy file names to MyFile.txt
using(StreamWriter file = new StreamWriter(#"MyPath\MyFile.txt", true))
{
foreach(string line in listofnames)
{
file.WriteLine(line);
}
}

You only need to specify false in the second parameter of the constructor for StreamWriter( route, false )
String ruta = #"C:\Address\YourFile".txt";
using (StreamWriter file = new StreamWriter(ruta, false))
{
for ( int i = 0; i < settings.Length; ++i )
file.WriteLine( settings[ i ] );
file.Close();
}

The problem is with you locking the file by initializing StreamWriter onto filePath and then trying to call File.WriteAllText which also internally attempts to lock the file and eventually end up with an exception being thrown.
Also from what it looks you are trying to clear the file's content and then write something in.
Consider the following:
private void writeTextFile(string filePath, string text) {
using (StreamWriter tw = new StreamWriter(filePath, false)) //second parameter is `Append` and false means override content
tw.WriteLine(text);
}

Why not use FileStream with FileMode.Create?
using (var fs = new FileStream(filePath, FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write))
{
//Do something...
}
Look at the MSDN of FileMode Enum
Create
Specifies that the operating system should create a new file. If the file already exists, it will be overwritten. This requires Write permission. FileMode.Create is equivalent to requesting that if the file does not exist, use CreateNew; otherwise, use Truncate. If the file already exists but is a hidden file, an UnauthorizedAccessException exception is thrown.
Overwritten will cover/remove/clean/delete all existed file data.
if you would like to use StreamWriter, use new StreamWriter(fs).

How to read an entire file to a string using C#?

What is the quickest way to read a text file into a string variable?
I understand it can be done in several ways, such as read individual bytes and then convert those to string. I was looking for a method with minimal coding.

How about File.ReadAllText:
string contents = File.ReadAllText(#"C:\temp\test.txt");

A benchmark comparison of File.ReadAllLines vs StreamReader ReadLine from C# file handling
Results. StreamReader is much faster for large files with 10,000+
lines, but the difference for smaller files is negligible. As always,
plan for varying sizes of files, and use File.ReadAllLines only when
performance isn't critical.
StreamReader approach
As the File.ReadAllText approach has been suggested by others, you can also try the quicker (I have not tested quantitatively the performance impact, but it appears to be faster than File.ReadAllText (see comparison below)). The difference in performance will be visible only in case of larger files though.
string readContents;
using (StreamReader streamReader = new StreamReader(path, Encoding.UTF8))
{
readContents = streamReader.ReadToEnd();
}
Comparison of File.Readxxx() vs StreamReader.Readxxx()
Viewing the indicative code through ILSpy I have found the following about File.ReadAllLines, File.ReadAllText.
File.ReadAllText - Uses StreamReader.ReadToEnd internally
File.ReadAllLines - Also uses StreamReader.ReadLine internally with the additionally overhead of creating the List<string> to return as the read lines and looping till the end of file.
So both the methods are an additional layer of convenience built on top of StreamReader. This is evident by the indicative body of the method.
File.ReadAllText() implementation as decompiled by ILSpy
public static string ReadAllText(string path)
{
if (path == null)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException("path");
}
if (path.Length == 0)
{
throw new ArgumentException(Environment.GetResourceString("Argument_EmptyPath"));
}
return File.InternalReadAllText(path, Encoding.UTF8);
}
private static string InternalReadAllText(string path, Encoding encoding)
{
string result;
using (StreamReader streamReader = new StreamReader(path, encoding))
{
result = streamReader.ReadToEnd();
}
return result;
}

string contents = System.IO.File.ReadAllText(path)
Here's the MSDN documentation

For the noobs out there who find this stuff fun and interesting, the fastest way to read an entire file into a string in most cases (according to these benchmarks) is by the following:
using (StreamReader sr = File.OpenText(fileName))
{
string s = sr.ReadToEnd();
}
//you then have to process the string
However, the absolute fastest to read a text file overall appears to be the following:
using (StreamReader sr = File.OpenText(fileName))
{
string s = String.Empty;
while ((s = sr.ReadLine()) != null)
{
//do what you have to here
}
}
Put up against several other techniques, it won out most of the time, including against the BufferedReader.

Take a look at the File.ReadAllText() method
Some important remarks:
This method opens a file, reads each line of the file, and then adds
each line as an element of a string. It then closes the file. A line
is defined as a sequence of characters followed by a carriage return
('\r'), a line feed ('\n'), or a carriage return immediately followed
by a line feed. The resulting string does not contain the terminating
carriage return and/or line feed.
This method attempts to automatically detect the encoding of a file
based on the presence of byte order marks. Encoding formats UTF-8 and
UTF-32 (both big-endian and little-endian) can be detected.
Use the ReadAllText(String, Encoding) method overload when reading
files that might contain imported text, because unrecognized
characters may not be read correctly.
The file handle is guaranteed to be closed by this method, even if
exceptions are raised

string text = File.ReadAllText("Path"); you have all text in one string variable. If you need each line individually you can use this:
string[] lines = File.ReadAllLines("Path");

System.IO.StreamReader myFile =
new System.IO.StreamReader("c:\\test.txt");
string myString = myFile.ReadToEnd();

if you want to pick file from Bin folder of the application then you can try following and don't forget to do exception handling.
string content = File.ReadAllText(Path.Combine(System.IO.Directory.GetCurrentDirectory(), #"FilesFolder\Sample.txt"));

#Cris sorry .This is quote MSDN Microsoft
Methodology
In this experiment, two classes will be compared. The StreamReader and the FileStream class will be directed to read two files of 10K and 200K in their entirety from the application directory.
StreamReader (VB.NET)
sr = New StreamReader(strFileName)
Do
line = sr.ReadLine()
Loop Until line Is Nothing
sr.Close()
FileStream (VB.NET)
Dim fs As FileStream
Dim temp As UTF8Encoding = New UTF8Encoding(True)
Dim b(1024) As Byte
fs = File.OpenRead(strFileName)
Do While fs.Read(b, 0, b.Length) > 0
temp.GetString(b, 0, b.Length)
Loop
fs.Close()
Result
FileStream is obviously faster in this test. It takes an additional 50% more time for StreamReader to read the small file. For the large file, it took an additional 27% of the time.
StreamReader is specifically looking for line breaks while FileStream does not. This will account for some of the extra time.
Recommendations
Depending on what the application needs to do with a section of data, there may be additional parsing that will require additional processing time. Consider a scenario where a file has columns of data and the rows are CR/LF delimited. The StreamReader would work down the line of text looking for the CR/LF, and then the application would do additional parsing looking for a specific location of data. (Did you think String. SubString comes without a price?)
On the other hand, the FileStream reads the data in chunks and a proactive developer could write a little more logic to use the stream to his benefit. If the needed data is in specific positions in the file, this is certainly the way to go as it keeps the memory usage down.
FileStream is the better mechanism for speed but will take more logic.

well the quickest way meaning with the least possible C# code is probably this one:
string readText = System.IO.File.ReadAllText(path);

you can use :
public static void ReadFileToEnd()
{
try
{
//provide to reader your complete text file
using (StreamReader sr = new StreamReader("TestFile.txt"))
{
String line = sr.ReadToEnd();
Console.WriteLine(line);
}
}
catch (Exception e)
{
Console.WriteLine("The file could not be read:");
Console.WriteLine(e.Message);
}
}

string content = System.IO.File.ReadAllText( #"C:\file.txt" );

You can use like this
public static string ReadFileAndFetchStringInSingleLine(string file)
{
StringBuilder sb;
try
{
sb = new StringBuilder();
using (FileStream fs = File.Open(file, FileMode.Open))
{
using (BufferedStream bs = new BufferedStream(fs))
{
using (StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(bs))
{
string str;
while ((str = sr.ReadLine()) != null)
{
sb.Append(str);
}
}
}
}
return sb.ToString();
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
return "";
}
}
Hope this will help you.

you can read a text from a text file in to string as follows also
string str = "";
StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(Application.StartupPath + "\\Sample.txt");
while(sr.Peek() != -1)
{
str = str + sr.ReadLine();
}

I made a comparison between a ReadAllText and StreamBuffer for a 2Mb csv and it seemed that the difference was quite small but ReadAllText seemed to take the upper hand from the times taken to complete functions.

I'd highly recommend using the File.ReadLines(path) compare to StreamReader or any other File reading methods. Please find below the detailed performance benchmark for both small-size file and large-size file.
I hope this would help.
File operations read result:
For small file (just 8 lines)
For larger file (128465 lines)
Readlines Example:
public void ReadFileUsingReadLines()
{
var contents = File.ReadLines(path);
}
Note : Benchmark is done in .NET 6.

This comment is for those who are trying to read the complete text file in winform using c++ with the help of C# ReadAllText function
using namespace System::IO;
String filename = gcnew String(charfilename);
if(System::IO::File::Exists(filename))
{
String ^ data = gcnew String(System::IO::File::RealAllText(filename)->Replace("\0", Environment::Newline));
textBox1->Text = data;
}

Best way to write huge string into a file

In C#, I'm reading a moderate size of file (100 KB ~ 1 MB), modifying some parts of the content, and finally writing to a different file. All contents are text. Modification is done as string objects and string operations. My current approach is:
Read each line from the original file by using StreamReader.
Open a StringBuilder for the contents of the new file.
Modify the string object and call AppendLine of the StringBuilder (until the end of the file)
Open a new StreamWriter, and write the StringBuilder to the write stream.
However, I've found that StremWriter.Write truncates 32768 bytes (2^16), but the length of StringBuilder is greater than that. I could write a simple loop to guarantee entire string to a file. But, I'm wondering what would be the most efficient way in C# for doing this task?
To summarize, I'd like to modify only some parts of a text file and write to a different file. But, the text file size could be larger than 32768 bytes.
== Answer == I'm sorry to make confusin to you! It was just I didn't call flush. StremWriter.Write does not have a short (e.g., 2^16) limitation.

StreamWriter.Write
does not
truncate the string and has no limitation.
Internally it uses String.CopyTo which on the other hand uses unsafe code (using fixed) to copy chars so it is the most efficient.

The problem is most likely related to not closing the writer. See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.io.streamwriter.flush.aspx.
But I would suggest not loading the whole file in memory if that can be avoided.

can you try this :
void Test()
{
using (var inputFile = File.OpenText(#"c:\in.txt"))
{
using (var outputFile = File.CreateText(#"c:\out.txt"))
{
string current;
while ((current = inputFile.ReadLine()) != null)
{
outputFile.WriteLine(Process(current));
}
}
}
}
string Process(string current)
{
return current.ToLower();
}
It avoid to have to full file loaded in memory, by processing line by line and writing it directly

Well, that entirely depends on what you want to modify. If your modifications of one part of the text file are dependent on another part of the text file, you obviously need to have both of those parts in memory. If however, you only need to modify the text file on a line-by-line basis then use something like this :
using (StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(#"test.txt"))
{
using (StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(#"modifiedtest.txt"))
{
while (!sr.EndOfStream)
{
string line = sr.ReadLine();
//do some modifications
sw.WriteLine(line);
sw.Flush(); //force line to be written to disk
}
}
}

Instead of of running though the hole dokument i would use a regex to find what you are looking for Sample:
public List<string> GetAllProfiles()
{
List<string> profileNames = new List<string>();
using (StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(_folderLocation + "profiles.pg"))
{
string profiles = reader.ReadToEnd();
var regex = new Regex("\nname=([^\r]{0,})", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
var regexMatchs = regex.Matches(profiles);
profileNames.AddRange(from Match regexMatch in regexMatchs select regexMatch.Groups[1].Value);
}
return profileNames;
}

C# Streamreader writer (memory issues)

I have a few multimillion lined text files located in a directory, I want to read line by line and replace “|” with “\” and then write out the line to a new file. This code might work just fine but I’m not seeing any resulting text file, or it might be I’m just be impatient.
{
string startingdir = #"K:\qload";
string dest = #"K:\D\ho\jlg\load\dest";
string[] files = Directory.GetFiles(startingdir, "*.txt");
foreach (string file in files)
{
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
using (FileStream fs = new FileStream(file, FileMode.Open))
using (StreamReader rdr = new StreamReader(fs))
{
while (!rdr.EndOfStream)
{
string begdocfile = rdr.ReadLine();
string replacementwork = docfile.Replace("|", "\\");
sb.AppendLine(replacementwork);
FileInfo file_info = new FileInfo(file);
string outputfilename = file_info.Name;
using (FileStream fs2 = new FileStream(dest + outputfilename, FileMode.Append))
using (StreamWriter writer = new StreamWriter(fs2))
{
writer.WriteLine(replacementwork);
}
}
}
}
}
DUHHHHH Thanks to everyone.
Id10t error.

Get rid of the StringBuilder, and do not reopen the output file for each line:
string startingdir = #"K:\qload";
string dest = #"K:\D\ho\jlg\load\dest";
string[] files = Directory.GetFiles(startingdir, "*.txt");
foreach (string file in files)
{
var outfile = Path.Combine(dest, Path.GetFileName(file));
using (StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(file))
using (StreamWriter writer = new StreamWriter(outfile))
{
string line = reader.ReadLine();
while (line != null)
{
writer.WriteLine(line.Replace("|", "\\"));
line = reader.ReadLine();
}
}
}

Why are you using a StringBuilder - you are just filling up your memory without doing anything with it.
You should also move the FileStream and StreamWriter using statements to outside of your loop - you are re-creating your output streams for every line, causing unneeded IO in the form of opening and closing the file.

Use Path.Combine(dest, outputfilename), from your code it looks like you're writing to the file K:\D\ho\jlg\load\destouputfilename.txt

This code might work just fine but I’m not seeing any resulting text file, or it might be I’m just be impatient.
Have you considered having a Console.WriteLine in there to check the progress. Sure, it's going to slow down performance a tiny tiny bit - but you'll know what's going on.

It looks like you might want to do a Path.Combine, so that instead of new FileStream(dest + outputfilename), you have new FileStream(Path.Combine(dest + outputfilename)), which will create the files in the directory that you expect, rather than creating them in K:\D\ho\jlg\load.
However, I'm not sure why you're writing to a StringBuilder that you're not using, or why you're opening and closing the file stream and stream writer on each line that you're writing, is that to force the writer to flush it's output? If so, it might be easier to just flush the writer/stream on each write.

you're opening and closing the output strean for each line in the output, you'll have to be very patient!
open it once outside the loop.

I guess the problem is here:
string begdocfile = rdr.ReadLine();
string replacementwork = docfile.Replace("|", "\\");
you're reading into begdocfile variable but replacing chars in docfile which I guess is empty

string replacementwork = docfile.Replace("|", "\\");
I believe the above line in your code is incorrect : it should be "begdocfile.Replace ..." ?
I suggest you focus on getting as much of the declaration and "name manufacture" out of the inner loop as possible : right now you are creating new FileInfo objects, and path names for every single line you read in every file : that's got to be hugely expensive.
make a single pass over the list of target files first, and create, at one time, the destination files, perhaps store them in a List for easy access, later. Or a Dictionary where "string" will be the new file path associated with that FileInfo ? Another strategy : just copy the whole directory once, and then operate to directly change the copied files : then rename them, rename the directory, whatever.
move every variable declaration out of that inner loop, and within the using code blocks you can.
I suspect you are going to hear from someone here at more of a "guru level" shortly who might suggest a different strategy based on a more profound knowledge of streams than I have, but that's a guess.
Good luck !