Video: Text Files and Streams in C# (Bulgarian)

Nikolay Kostov (Nikolay.IT)

Topics covered:

  • What is Stream?
    • Stream Basics
  • Reading Text Files
    • The StreamReader Class
  • Writing Text Files
    • The StreamWriter Class
  • Handling I/O Exceptions

Video (in Bulgarian)

Presentation Content

What Is Stream?

  • Stream is the natural way to transfer data in the computer world
  • To read or write a file, we open a stream connected to the file and access the data through the stream

Streams Basics

  • Streams are used for reading and writing data into and from devices
  • Streams are _ordered sequences of _ bytes
    • Provide consecutive access to its elements
  • Different types of streams are available to access different data sources:
    • File access, network access, memory streams and others
  • Streams are open before using them and closed after that

The StreamReader Class

  • System.IO.StreamReader
    • The easiest way to read a text file
    • Implements methods for reading text lines and sequences of characters
    • Constructed by file name or other stream
      • Can specify the text encoding
      • For Cyrillic use UTF8
    • Works like Console.Read() / ReadLine() but over text files

StreamReader Methods

  • _new _ StreamReader(fileName)
    • Constructor for creating reader from given file
  • ReadLine()
    • Reads a single text line from the stream
    • Returns null when end-of-file is reached
  • ReadToEnd()
    • Reads all the text until the end of the stream
  • Close()
    • Closes the stream reader

Using StreamReader – Practices

  • The StreamReader instances should always be closed by calling the Close() method
    • Otherwise system resources can be lost
  • In C# the preferable way to close streams and readers is by the " using " construction
    • It automatically calls the Close() after the using construction is completed

The StreamWriter Class

  • System.IO.StreamWriter
    • Similar to StreamReader , but instead of reading, it provides writing functionality
  • Constructed by file name or other stream
    • Can define encoding
    • For Cyrillic use "UTF8 "

StreamWriter Methods

  • Write ()
    • Writes string or other object to the stream
    • Like Console.Write ()
  • WriteLine ()
    • Like Console.Write Line()
  • Flush ()
    • Flushes the internal buffers to the hard drive
  • AutoFlush
    • Flush the internal buffer after each writing

What is Exception?

  • "An event that occurs during the execution of the program that disrupts the normal flow of instructions“ – definition by Google
    • Occurs when an operation can not be completed
  • Exceptions tell that something unusual has happened, e. g. error or unexpected event
  • I/O operations throw exceptions when operation cannot be performed (e.g. missing file)
    • When an exception is thrown, all operations after it are not processed

Summary

  • Streams are the main I/O mechanismsin .NET
  • The StreamReader class and ReadLine() method are used to read text files
  • The StreamWriter class and WriteLine() method are used to write text files
  • Always put file handling in using(…) block
  • Exceptions are unusual events or error conditions
    • Can be handled by try-catch-finally blocks
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