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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).

Delete an entry from a file (C# StreamWriter class)

I have a file which contains several text entries, say
one
two
three
Now, I need to delete one of the entries, say "two". I'm using StreamReader and StreamWriter classes. In order to delete, first, I read the contents of the file into a string using StreamReader class, replace the "two\r\n" in the read string with "" and then, I write this string to the file using the StreamWriter class. But, since the length of the newly written string i.e. "one\r\nthree\r\n" is less than the original string i.e. "one\r\ntwo\r\nthree\r\n", the first few characters get overwritten and the characters near the end still stay there giving rise to "one\r\nthree\r\nree\r\n". Seems like a simple problem but, it has me stuck. Any ideas?
The user variable contains the entry to be deleted.
string all = "";
using (IsolatedStorageFileStream isoStream = store.OpenFile("user_list", FileMode.Open))
{
using (StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(isoStream))
{
all = sr.ReadToEnd();
all = all.Replace(user + "\r\n", "");
}
}
using (IsolatedStorageFileStream isoStream = store.OpenFile("user_list", FileMode.Open))
{
using (StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(isoStream))
{
sw.Write(all);
sw.Flush();
}
}

You can fix the problem by changing FileMode.Open to FileMode.Create when you're opening the output file. That is:
using (IsolatedStorageFileStream isoStream =
store.OpenFile("user_list", FileMode.Create))
That will overwrite the previous file.

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;
}

C# - Appending text files

I have code that reads a file and then converts it to a string, the string is then written to a new file, although could someone demonstrate how to append this string to the destination file (rather than overwriting it)
private static void Ignore()
{
System.IO.StreamReader myFile =
new System.IO.StreamReader("c:\\test.txt");
string myString = myFile.ReadToEnd();
myFile.Close();
Console.WriteLine(myString);
// Write the string to a file.
System.IO.StreamWriter file = new System.IO.StreamWriter("c:\\test2.txt");
file.WriteLine(myString);
file.Close();
}

If the file is small, you can read and write in two code lines.
var myString = File.ReadAllText("c:\\test.txt");
File.AppendAllText("c:\\test2.txt", myString);
If the file is huge, you can read and write line-by-line:
using (var source = new StreamReader("c:\\test.txt"))
using (var destination = File.AppendText("c:\\test2.txt"))
{
var line = source.ReadLine();
destination.WriteLine(line);
}

using(StreamWriter file = File.AppendText(#"c:\test2.txt"))
{
file.WriteLine(myString);
}

Use File.AppendAllText
File.AppendAllText("c:\\test2.txt", myString)
Also to read it, you can use File.ReadAllText to read it. Otherwise use a using statement to Dispose of the stream once you're done with the file.

Try
StreamWriter writer = File.AppendText("C:\\test.txt");
writer.WriteLine(mystring);

File being used by another process after using File.Create()

I'm trying to detect if a file exists at runtime, if not, create it. However I'm getting this error when I try to write to it:
The process cannot access the file 'myfile.ext' because it is being used by another process.
string filePath = string.Format(#"{0}\M{1}.dat", ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["DirectoryPath"], costCentre);
if (!File.Exists(filePath))
{
File.Create(filePath);
}
using (StreamWriter sw = File.AppendText(filePath))
{
//write my text
}
Any ideas on how to fix it?

File.Create(FilePath).Close();
File.WriteAllText(FileText);
I want to update this answer to say that this is not really the most efficient way to write all text. You should only use this code if you need something quick and dirty.
I was a young programmer when I answered this question, and back then I thought I was some kind of genius for coming up with this answer.

The File.Create method creates the file and opens a FileStream on the file. So your file is already open. You don't really need the file.Create method at all:
string filePath = #"c:\somefilename.txt";
using (StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(filePath, true))
{
//write to the file
}
The boolean in the StreamWriter constructor will cause the contents to be appended if the file exists.

When creating a text file you can use the following code:
System.IO.File.WriteAllText("c:\test.txt", "all of your content here");
Using the code from your comment. The file(stream) you created must be closed. File.Create return the filestream to the just created file.:
string filePath = "filepath here";
if (!System.IO.File.Exists(filePath))
{
System.IO.FileStream f = System.IO.File.Create(filePath);
f.Close();
}
using (System.IO.StreamWriter sw = System.IO.File.AppendText(filePath))
{
//write my text
}

FileStream fs= File.Create(ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["file"]);
fs.Close();

File.Create returns a FileStream. You need to close that when you have written to the file:
using (FileStream fs = File.Create(path, 1024))
{
Byte[] info = new UTF8Encoding(true).GetBytes("This is some text in the file.");
// Add some information to the file.
fs.Write(info, 0, info.Length);
}
You can use using for automatically closing the file.

I updated your question with the code snippet. After proper indenting, it is immediately clear what the problem is: you use File.Create() but don't close the FileStream that it returns.
Doing it that way is unnecessary, StreamWriter already allows appending to an existing file and creating a new file if it doesn't yet exist. Like this:
string filePath = string.Format(#"{0}\M{1}.dat", ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["DirectoryPath"], costCentre);
using (StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(filePath, true)) {
//write my text
}
Which uses this StreamWriter constructor.

I know this is an old question, but I just want to throw this out there that you can still use File.Create("filename")", just add .Dispose() to it.
File.Create("filename").Dispose();
This way it creates and closes the file for the next process to use it.

This question has already been answered, but here is a real world solution that
checks if the directory exists and adds a number to the end if the text file
exists. I use this for creating daily log files on a Windows service I wrote. I
hope this helps someone.
// How to create a log file with a sortable date and add numbering to it if it already exists.
public void CreateLogFile()
{
// filePath usually comes from the App.config file. I've written the value explicitly here for demo purposes.
var filePath = "C:\\Logs";
// Append a backslash if one is not present at the end of the file path.
if (!filePath.EndsWith("\\"))
{
filePath += "\\";
}
// Create the path if it doesn't exist.
if (!Directory.Exists(filePath))
{
Directory.CreateDirectory(filePath);
}
// Create the file name with a calendar sortable date on the end.
var now = DateTime.Now;
filePath += string.Format("Daily Log [{0}-{1}-{2}].txt", now.Year, now.Month, now.Day);
// Check if the file that is about to be created already exists. If so, append a number to the end.
if (File.Exists(filePath))
{
var counter = 1;
filePath = filePath.Replace(".txt", " (" + counter + ").txt");
while (File.Exists(filePath))
{
filePath = filePath.Replace("(" + counter + ").txt", "(" + (counter + 1) + ").txt");
counter++;
}
}
// Note that after the file is created, the file stream is still open. It needs to be closed
// once it is created if other methods need to access it.
using (var file = File.Create(filePath))
{
file.Close();
}
}

I think I know the reason for this exception. You might be running this code snippet in multiple threads.

you can just use using keyword around File.Create(path) to finalize the process
using(File.Create(path));

Try this: It works in any case, if the file doesn't exists, it will create it and then write to it. And if already exists, no problem it will open and write to it :
using (FileStream fs= new FileStream(#"File.txt",FileMode.Create,FileAccess.ReadWrite))
{
fs.close();
}
using (StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(#"File.txt"))
{
sw.WriteLine("bla bla bla");
sw.Close();
}