C# for Programmers, Second Edition

18. Files and Streams

I can only assume that a “Do Not File” document is filed in a “Do Not File” file.

—Senator Frank Church Senate Intelligence Subcommittee Hearing, 1975

Consciousness ... does not appear to itself chopped up in bits. ... A “river” or a “stream” are the metaphors by which it is most naturally described.

—William James

I read part of it all the way through.

—Samuel Goldwyn

Objectives

In this chapter you will learn:

• To create, read, write and update files.

• The C# streams class hierarchy.

• To use classes File and Directory to obtain information about files and directories on your computer.

• To become familiar with sequential-access file processing.

• To use classes FileStream, StreamReader and StreamWriter to read ...