CSCI 3328 Object Oriented Programming in C# Chapter 11: Files and Streams 1 Xiang Lian The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Edinburg, TX

Objectives In this chapter, you will –Learn how to create, read, write, and update files –Know how to use classes File and Directory to obtain information about files and directories on your computer –Learn how to use LINQ to search through directories –Get familiar with sequential-access file processing –Know how to use classes FileStream, StreamReader, StreamWriter, FileStream, and BinaryFormatter, as well as yield return 2

Introduction Variables and arrays only offer temporary storage of data –Data are lost when the program terminates In contrast, files are used for long-term storage place –Persistent data –Data are stored on secondary storage devices 3

Data Hierarchy Bits Characters (ASCII or Unicode) Fields Records Files –Record key –Sequential file Databases 4

Files and Streams File as a sequential stream of bytes Each file ends with an end-of-file marker Windows keeps track of total number of bytes in a file When a file is opened an object is created and a stream is associated with the object Each program automatically gets 3 objects, Console.Out, Console.In and Console.Error 5

Classes File and Directory Files are organized in directories Class Directory provides capabilities for manipulating directories Class File has static methods: –AppendText, Copy, Create, CreateText, Delete, Exists, GetCreationTime, GetLastAccessTime, GetLastWriteTime, Move, Open, OpenRead, OpenText, OpenWrite 6

Directory Class Static Methods CreateDirectory Delete Exists GetDirectories GetFiles GetCreationTime GetLastAccessTime GetLastWriteTime Move 7

Create a File to Read/Write Pre-defined class library –using System.IO; StreamWriter (for text output) –StreamWriter outFile = new StreamWriter(fileName); StreamReader (for text input) –StreamReader inFile = null; try{ using (inFile = new StreamReader(fileName)) { outputTextBox.AppendText(inFile.ReadToEnd());} } catch(IOException) { MessageBox.Show("Error reading from file", "File Error", MessageBoxButton.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Error); } 8

Write to the File string fileName="test.txt"; File.Exists(fileName) –true, if fileName exists outFile.WriteLine("text"); Other methods –File.GetCreationTime(fileName); –File.GetLastWriteTime(fileName); –File.GetLastAccessTime(fileName); 9

Read From the File inFile.ReadLine(); 10

Close the File outFile.Close(); inFile.Close(); 11

Directory Directory.Exists(Name); –true, if directory Name exists string [] directoryList = Directory.GetDirectories(Name); –Obtain a list of files and directories 12

Searching Directories with LINQ string currentDirectory; currentDirectory = Directory.GetCurrentDirectory(); string [] files = Directory.GetFiles(currentDirectory); string [] directories=Directory.GetDirectories(currentDirectory); var extensions = (from file in files select Path.GetExtension(file)).Distinct(); foreach(var extension in extensions) { var extensionCount = (from file in files where Path.GetExtension(file)==extension select file).Count(); } 13

Dictionary Class A class Dictionary is a collection of key/value pairs –In namespace System.Collections.Generic –Dictionary found = new Dictionary (); Key is of string data type, and value is of int data type Methods –found.ContainsKey(extension) true, if the directory contains a key for the extension –found.Add(extension, extensionCount); –found[extension] Returns the value of the key "extension" –found.Keys A collection of keys 14

Example of Deleting Files var backupFiles = from file in files where Path.GetExtension(file)==".bak" select file; foreach (var backup in backupFiles) { DialogResult result = MessageBox.Show("Found backup file " + Path.GetFileName(backup) + ". Delete?", "Delete Backup", MessageBoxButtons.YesNo, MessageBoxIcon.Question); if (result == DialogResult.Yes) { File.Delete(backup);// delete the file with name in "backup" found[".bak"]--;// decrement the counter if (found[".bak"] == 0) found.Remove(".bak");// remove the key from dictionary } 15

Create a Sequential File In C# files, the concept of a "record" does not exist Therefore, you have to create structured files by yourself –Use text and special characters to separate fields in the record 16

Example of Creating a Sequential File public class Record { public int Account {get; set;} public string FirstName {get; set;} public string LastName {get; set;} public decimal Balance {get; set;} public Record() :this(0, string.Empty, string.Empty, 0M){} public RecordSerializable (int acc, string fName, string lName, decimal bal) { Account = acc; FirstName = fName; LastName = lName; Balance = bal; } 17

Example of Creating a Sequential File (cont'd) FileStream output = new FileStream (fileName, FileMode.OpenOrCreate, FileAccess.Write); StreamWriter fileWriter = new StreamWriter(output); Record record = new Record(); fileWriter.WriteLine(record.Account + "," + record.FirstName + "," + record.LastName + "," + record.Balance); 18

Reading Data From a Sequential- Access Text File FileStream input = new FileStream(fileName, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read); StreamReader fileReader = new StreamReader(input); string inputRecord = fileReader.ReadLine(); string[] inputFields; if (inputRecord != null) { inputFields = inputRecord.Split(','); Record record = new Record(Convert.ToInt32(inputFields[0]), inputFields[1], inputFields[2], Convert.ToDecimal(inputFields[3])); } 19

Class BinaryFormatter –Under namespace System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary –Serializable(outFile, object) method Write a serializable object to the output file Serialization –In a class that is marked with [Serializable] attribute or that implements interface Iserializable, you must ensure that every instance variable in a class is also serializable –All simple-type variables, strings, and arrays (without containing references) are serializable 20

Example of RecordSerializable Class public class RecordSerializable { [Serializable] public int Account {get; set;} public string FirstName {get; set;} public string LastName {get; set;} public decimal Balance {get; set;} public RecordSerializable() :this(0, string.Empty, string.Empty, 0M){} public RecordSerializable (int acc, string fName, string lName, decimal bal) { Account = acc; FirstName = fName; LastName = lName; Balance = bal; } 21

Example of RecordSerializable Class (cont'd) BinaryFormatter formatter = new BinaryFormatter(); FileStream output = new FileStream(fileName, FileMode.OpenOrCreate, FileAccess.Write); try{ RecordSerializable record = new RecordSerializable(); formatter.Serialize(output, record); } catch (SerializationException) { // … } catch (FormatException) { // … } 22

Reading and Deserializing Data From a Binary File BinaryFormatter reader = new BinaryFormatter(); FileStream input = new FileStream(fileName, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read); try{ RecordSerializable record = (RecordSerializable) reader.Deserialize(input); } catch (SerializationException) { input.Close(); } 23

Select Files from Chooser Recall this topic in lecture slides of Chapter 8 24

Obtaining File Name From Chooser OpenFileDialog fDialog = new OpenFileDialog(); if (fDialog.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK) { fileName = (fDialog.FileName.ToString()); MessageBox.Show(fileName); } 25

Reading From a File StreamReader ofile = new StreamReader(fileName); while (ofile.Peek()!=-1) { string oneline = ofile.ReadLine(); MessageBox.Show(oneline,"Reading From File.."); string[] items = oneline.Split(','); onePerson.fName = items[0]; onePerson.lName = items[1]; onePerson.GPA = Convert.ToSingle(items[3]); onePerson.Tele = items[2]; friendsList.Add(onePerson); } ofile.Close(); 26

Writing to the File StreamWriter outfile = new StreamWriter(fileName); foreach (Info person in friendsList) outfile.WriteLine(person.fName+","+person.lName+","+person.Tele+","+Convert.ToString(person.GPA)); outfile.Close(); 27

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