I have been looking at writing a string into a file and then read it line by line, but I always get the error IOException: Sharing violation on path C:...\level1.txt. I looked on the internet and they said I should use the same stream to write and read but it didn't work,so I tried to make a different stream for each one and it didn't work either.
FileStream F = new FileStream("level1.txt", FileMode.OpenOrCreate, FileAccess.ReadWrite);
StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(F);
sw.Write(Gui.codeText.Replace("\n", "\r\n"));
F.Close();
FileStream F2 = new FileStream("level1.txt", FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read);
StreamReader file = new StreamReader(F2);
while ((line = file.ReadLine()) != null)
{ ....}
I think you just need to use the Using statement while read and write.
Since the StreamWriter and StreamReader classes inherits Stream, which is implements the IDisposable interface, the example can use using statements to ensure that the underlying file is properly closed following the write or read operations.
using (StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(F))
{
//Write Logic goes here...
}
using (StreamReader file = new StreamReader(F2))
{
//Read Logc goes here...
}
The Using Statement:
An using statement is translated into three parts: acquisition, usage,
and disposal. Usage of the resource is implicitly enclosed in a try
statement that includes a finally clause. This finally clause disposes
of the resource. If a null resource is acquired, then no call to
Dispose is made, and no exception is thrown.
Related
I'm using the following lines of code in order to write credentials of users to a text file. It's supposed to create the directory inside AppData (which it does) but it doesn't write the credentials to the text file, it leaves it blank!
public void RegisterUserCreds()
{
string[] creds = { Username.Text, Password.Text };
string roaming = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData);
if (!Directory.Exists(roaming + "/Launcher"))
Directory.CreateDirectory(roaming + "/Launcher");
string specificFolder = roaming + "/Launcher/user_info.txt";
var fs = File.Open(specificFolder, FileMode.OpenOrCreate, FileAccess.ReadWrite);
var sw = new StreamWriter(fs);
sw.WriteLine(Username.Text);
fs.Close();
}
What's the problem? Thanks!
Just use the using statement when operating on streams:
public static void RegisterUserCreds()
{
string[] creds = { Username.Text, Password.Text };
string roaming = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData);
if (!Directory.Exists(roaming + "/Launcher")) Directory.CreateDirectory(roaming + "/Launcher");
string specificFolder = roaming + "/Launcher/user_info.txt";
using (var fs = File.Open(specificFolder, FileMode.OpenOrCreate, FileAccess.ReadWrite))
{
using (var sw = new StreamWriter(fs))
{
sw.WriteLine(Username.Text);
}
}
}
In your code you were closing the file stream before the stream writer was able to flush the changes you want to write so the file was created empty.
You're closing the wrong stream. When you create new stream objects and pass an existing stream to the constructor, that new stream now "owns" the old stream. When you dispose of the newer stream it will automatically dispose of the older one.
In your situation, you're closing the "fs" stream, but the "sw" stream might not have actually written to it yet (it has it's own internal buffer). If you were to close the "sw" stream instead, it would flush it's buffer (into the "fs" stream), and then it would call fs.Dispose() for you to make sure it did the same thing.
There's a much better way, that would help you avoid doing things out-of-order like this, as well as make sure you're calling Dispose() even if exceptions get thrown (streams implement IDisposable, so you're supposed to always call their Dispose() method when you're done with them so they can internally "clean up"). The using statement is perfect for this, since it will call Dispose() even if an exception is thrown (it's a shortcut for wrapping the code with try/finally blocks):
using (var fs = File.Open(specificFolder, FileMode.OpenOrCreate, FileAccess.ReadWrite))
{
using (var sw = new StreamWriter(fs))
{
sw.WriteLine(Username.Text);
}
}
This is the same as this:
try
{
var fs = File.Open(specificFolder, FileMode.OpenOrCreate, FileAccess.ReadWrite);
try
{
var sw = new StreamWriter(fs);
sw.WriteLine(Username.Text);
}
finally
{
sw.Dispose();
}
}
finally
{
fs.Dispose();
}
Even though sw.Dispose() will call fs.Dispose() for you, there is no harm in calling fs.Dispose() again. Why is it important to call Dispose()? Let's say an exception was thrown during sw.WriteLine() (e.g. out of disk space, I/O error, etc.)... the file would stay open until your app terminated. The using (or the try/catch version) would make sure the file was closed no matter what.
(side note: with streams, Dispose() and Close() do the same thing, you don't need to call both. Close() just calls Dispose() -- MS included a method called Close() because that was what people were used to with a file API, but the .NET IDisposable interface uses a method called Dispose())
(another side note: starting with .NET 4.5, many of the stream classes have an additional constructor that has a new "leaveOpen" parameter... passing true would tell that stream to NOT dispose of the original stream automatically)
Is the compiler able to merge any of the following code into a single try/catch?
using (FileStream stream = new FileStream(filePath, FileMode.Open))
{
using (BinaryReader reader = new BinaryReader(stream))
{
a try/catch around my actual code...
}
}
If not, would there be any functional difference if I do this instead?
FileStream stream = null;
BinaryReader reader = null;
try
{
stream = new FileStream(filePath, FileMode.Open);
reader = new BinaryReader(stream)
// do my stuff
}
catch (stuff)
{
}
finally
{
if (stream != null)
stream.Close();
if (reader != null)
reader.Close();
}
Since the overhead of having an extra try/finally is virtually zero, there is no difference if the compiler combines two blocks in one or keeps them separate. Your translated code would have a single try-catch embedded inside two layers of try-finally, which are virtually free in terms of performance.
Converting the using code manually has a different implication - the visibility of variables is different. Your translation of nested using statements leaves stream and reader variables accessible after the block. They refer to a closed stream and a closed reader. Regular using, on the other hand, keeps its variables inside its scope, as if an additional pair of curly braces were placed around the whole block:
{ // <<==
FileStream stream = null;
BinaryReader reader = null;
try {
stream = new FileStream(filePath, FileMode.Open);
reader = new BinaryReader(stream)
// do my stuff
} finally {
if (stream != null)
stream.Close();
if (reader != null)
reader.Close();
}
} // <<==
using is better in this way, because it lets you avoid an extra level of nesting while keeping its variable in local scope. Moreover, you could reduce the level of nesting in your source by placing two consecutive using blocks together at the same level of indentation, with no curly braces:
using (FileStream stream = new FileStream(filePath, FileMode.Open))
using (BinaryReader reader = new BinaryReader(stream)) {
a try/catch around my actual code...
}
Is the compiler able to merge any of the following code into a single try/catch?
No, the compiler is not able to make your code behave differently from what you've written. And it would be different even without the possibility of Close() and Dispose() having different effects, but let's pretend you called Dispose() yourself.
If not, would there be any functional difference if I do this instead?
Yes. Putting both Dispose() invocations in a single finally block means that reader won't be disposed if stream.Dispose() throws an exception.
No well-written IDisposable's Dispose() method throws an exception, but the compiler cannot know or assume that all implementations are well-written.
I have an array list which contains 100 lines.
When i try to export it into a text file (txt), the output is only 84 lines and it stops in the middle of the 84th line.
When I looked at the file size it showed exactly sharp 4.00KB as if there is some kind of a limit to the stream writer. I tried using different parameters etc. but it kept happening.
Here is the code:
FileStream fs = new FileStream(path, FileMode.Create);
StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(fs);
ArrayList chartList = GetChart(maintNode);
foreach (var line in chartList)
{
sw.WriteLine(line);
}
fs.Close();
Console.WriteLine("Done");
Thanks for the help!
You need to call StreamWriter.Flush or set StreamWriter.AutoFlush to true. That said, if you use using statment, everything should work fine.
using(StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(fs))
{
ArrayList chartList = GetChart(maintNode);
foreach (var line in chartList)
{
sw.WriteLine(line);
}
}
Using statement calls Dispose which will flush the buffer to the FileStream and also closes the file stream. So you don't need to close it manually.
Then I recommend List<T> over ArrayList. ArrayList shouldn't be used, it is not type safe and should be avoided if you're in .Net2.0 or greater.
Also consider using File.WriteAllLines method, so that you don't need these many lines of code. Everything is managed by WriteAllLines method itself.
I'm attempting to use StreamReader and StreamWriter to grab a temporary output log (.txt format) from another application.
The output log is always open and constantly written to.
Unhelpfully if the application closes or crashes, the log file ends up deleted - hence the need for a tool that can grab the information from this log and save it.
What my program currently does is:
Create a new .txt file, and stores the path of that file as the
string "destinationFile".
Finds the .txt log file to read, and stores the path of that file as
the string "sourceFile"
It then passes those two strings to the method below.
Essentially I'm trying to read the sourceFile one line at a time.
Each time one line is read, it is appended to destinationFile.
This keeps looping until the sourceFile no longer exists (i.e. the application has closed or crashed and deleted its log).
In addition, the sourceFile can get quite big (sometimes 100Mb+), and this program may be handling more than one log at a time.
Reading the whole log rather than line by line will most likely start consuming a fair bit of memory.
private void logCopier(string sourceFile, string destinationFile)
{
while (File.Exists(sourceFile))
{
string textLine;
using (var readerStream = File.Open(sourceFile,
FileMode.Open,
FileAccess.Read,
FileShare.ReadWrite))
using (var reader = new StreamReader(readerStream))
{
while ((textLine = reader.ReadLine()) != null)
{
using (FileStream writerStream = new FileStream(destinationFile,
FileMode.Append,
FileAccess.Write))
using (StreamWriter writer = new StreamWriter(writerStream))
{
writer.WriteLine(textLine);
}
}
}
}
}
The problem is that my WPF application locks up and ceases to respond when it reaches this code.
To track down where, I put a MessageBox just before the writerStream line of the code to output what the reader was picking up.
It was certainly reading the log file just fine, but there appears to be a problem with writing it to the file.
As soon as it reaches the using (FileStream writerStream = new FileStream part of the code, it stops responding.
Is using the StreamWriter in this manner not valid, or have I just gone and dome something silly in the code?
Am also open to a better solution than what I'm trying to do here.
Simply what I understand is you need to copy a file from source to destination which may be deleted at any time.
I'll suggest you to use FileSystemWatcher to watch for source file changed event, then just simply copy the whole file from source to destination using File.Copy.
I've just solved the problem, and the issue was indeed something silly!
When creating the text file for the StreamWriter, I had forgotten to use .Dispose();. I had File.Create(filename); instead of File.Create(filename).Dispose(); This meant the text file was already open, and the StreamWriter was attempting to write to a file that was locked / in use.
The UI still locks up (as expected), as I've yet to implement this on a new thread as SteenT mentioned. However the program no longer crashes and the code correctly reads the log and outputs to a text file.
Also after a bit of refinement, my log reader/writer code now looks like this:
private void logCopier(string sourceFile, string destinationFile)
{
int num = 1;
string textLine = String.Empty;
long offset = 0L;
while (num == 1)
{
if (File.Exists(sourceFile))
{
FileStream stream = new FileStream(sourceFile, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.ReadWrite);
using (new StreamReader(stream))
{
stream.Seek(offset, SeekOrigin.Begin);
TextReader reader2 = new StreamReader(stream);
while ((textLine = reader2.ReadLine()) != null)
{
Thread.Sleep(1);
StreamWriter writer = new StreamWriter(destinationFile, true);
writer.WriteLine(textLine);
writer.Flush();
writer.Close();
offset = stream.Position;
}
continue;
}
}
else
{
num = 0;
}
}
}
Just putting this code up here in case anyone else is looking for something like this. :)
Here is the code im using to write and read from text file.
StreamWriter sw1 = new StreamWriter("DataNames.txt");
sw1.WriteLine(textBox1.Text);
sw1.Close();
StreamWriter sw2 = new StreamWriter("DataNumbers.txt");
sw2.WriteLine(textBox2.Text);
sw2.Close();
FileInfo file1 = new FileInfo("DataNames.txt");
StreamReader sr1 = file1.OpenText();
while (!sr1.EndOfStream)
{
listBox1.Items.Add(sr1.ReadLine());
}
FileInfo file2 = new FileInfo("DataNumbers.txt");
StreamReader sr2 = file2.OpenText();
while (!sr2.EndOfStream)
{
listBox2.Items.Add(sr2.ReadLine());
}
The thing is that when I click my button to save data from my textboxes to my text files an error appears that says "The process cannot access the file 'C:\xxxx\xxxxxx\xxxxx\xxxx\xxxxx\xxxxx.txt' because it is being used by another process."
Can anyone tell me why I have this error and maybe help me fix it
Try added a using statment around your streams to make sure they are Disposed otherwise the file is still locked to the stream
Example:
//Write
using (StreamWriter sw1 = new StreamWriter("DataNames.txt"))
{
sw1.WriteLine(textBox1.Text);
}
using (StreamWriter sw2 = new StreamWriter("DataNumbers.txt"))
{
sw2.WriteLine(textBox2.Text);
}
// Read
foreach (var line in File.ReadAllLines("DataNames.txt"))
{
listBox1.Items.Add(line);
}
foreach (var line in File.ReadAllLines("DataNumbers.txt"))
{
listBox2.Items.Add(line);
}
It appears you do not close the file after you read it. After you call FileInfo.OpenText you get a StreamReader which has to be closed, either via Close method, or even better, with a using statement.
But there are already methods that do all that for you, have a look at File.WriteAllText,
File.AppendAllText and File.ReadAllLines methods.
You need to Close the StreamReader object once you do not need it any more. This should fix this issue.
I.e.
StreamReader sr1 = file1.OpenText();
try {
while (!sr1.EndOfStream)
{
listBox1.Items.Add(sr1.ReadLine());
}
}
finally {
sr1.Close();
}
FileInfo file2 = new FileInfo("DataNumbers.txt");
StreamReader sr2 = file2.OpenText();
try {
while (!sr2.EndOfStream)
{
listBox2.Items.Add(sr2.ReadLine());
}
}
finally {
sr2.Close();
}
You have opened files but not closed.
StreamReader sr1 = file1.OpenText();
StreamReader sr2 = file2.OpenText();
Your problem occurs, because you are not closing the stream readers.
A safer way of using external resources (the files in this case) is to embed their use in a using statement. The using statement automatically closes the resource at the end of the statement block or if the statement block if left in another way. This could be a return statement or an exception, for instance. It is guaranteed that the resource will be closed, even after an exception occurs.
You can apply the using statement on any object which implements the IDisposable interface.
// Writing to the files
using (var sw1 = new StreamWriter("DataNames.txt")) {
sw1.WriteLine(textBox1.Text);
}
using(var sw2 = new StreamWriter("DataNumbers.txt")) {
sw2.WriteLine(textBox2.Text);
}
// Reading from the files
FileInfo file1 = new FileInfo("DataNames.txt");
using (StreamReader sr1 = file1.OpenText()) {
while (!sr1.EndOfStream) {
listBox1.Items.Add(sr1.ReadLine());
}
}
FileInfo file2 = new FileInfo("DataNumbers.txt");
using (StreamReader sr2 = file2.OpenText()) {
while (!sr2.EndOfStream)
{
listBox2.Items.Add(sr2.ReadLine());
}
}
However, you can simplify the reading part like this
// Reading from the files
listBox1.Items.AddRange(File.ReadAllLines("DataNames.txt"));
listBox2.Items.AddRange(File.ReadAllLines("DataNumbers.txt"));
I've seen this behavior before - usually there's another process open that's blocking the file access. Do you have multiple development servers open in your taskbar? (Strange, yes, but I've seen it happen)