Professional C# and .NET, 2021st Edition

18Files and Streams

WHAT'S IN THIS CHAPTER?

• Exploring the directory structure
• Moving, copying, and deleting files and folders
• Reading and writing text in files
• Using streams to read and write files
• Using readers and writers to read and write files
• Compressing files
• Monitoring file changes
• Working with JSON serialization
• Using Windows Runtime streams

CODE DOWNLOADS FOR THIS CHAPTER

The source code for this chapter is available on the book page at www.wiley.com. Click the Downloads link. The code can also be found at https://github.com/ProfessionalCSharp/ProfessionalCSharp2021 in the directory 2_Libs/FilesAndStreams.

The code for this chapter is divided into the following major examples:

• FilesAndFolders
• StreamSamples
• ReaderWriterSamples
• CompressFileSample
• FileMonitor
• JsonSample
• WindowsAppEditor

The major namespaces used in this chapter are System.IO, System.IO.Compression, System.Text, and System.Text.Json. With the Windows app sample, Winodws.Storage and Windows.Storage.Streams are important namespaces. All projects have nullable reference types enabled.

OVERVIEW

When you're reading and writing to files and directories, you can use simple APIs, or you can use advanced ones that offer more features. Just use the simplest ones that fit your purpose. You also have to differentiate between .NET classes and the functionality offered from the Windows Runtime. From Universal Windows Platform (UWP) Windows apps, you don't have access to the file system in any directory; ...