Mastering C# File I/O: Essential Operations for Data Management

File Input/Output (I/O) in C# is crucial for reading from and writing to files on your computer, facilitating effective data storage, manipulation, and retrieval.

Key Concepts

• File Creation: Create new files for writing data.
• File Reading: Read content from existing files.
• File Writing: Write data to files, either overwriting or appending content.
• File Deletion: Delete files when they are no longer needed.

Common Classes Used in File I/O

• File: Provides static methods for file operations such as creating, copying, deleting, moving, and opening files.
• FileInfo: Offers instance methods for detailed file information.
• StreamReader: Used for reading data from a file.
• StreamWriter: Used for writing data to a file.

Example Operations

Creating and Writing to a File

using System.IO;

string path = @"C:\example.txt";
using (StreamWriter sw = File.CreateText(path))
{
    sw.WriteLine("Hello, World!");
    sw.WriteLine("Welcome to C# File I/O.");
}

Reading from a File

using System.IO;

string path = @"C:\example.txt";
using (StreamReader sr = File.OpenText(path))
{
    string line;
    while ((line = sr.ReadLine()) != null)
    {
        Console.WriteLine(line);
    }
}

Appending to a File

using System.IO;

string path = @"C:\example.txt";
using (StreamWriter sw = File.AppendText(path))
{
    sw.WriteLine("Appending a new line.");
}

Deleting a File

using System.IO;

string path = @"C:\example.txt";
if (File.Exists(path))
{
    File.Delete(path);
}

Conclusion

C# File I/O provides a straightforward approach to managing files and data. By mastering basic operations such as creating, reading, writing, and deleting files, you can efficiently handle data storage in your applications.