VB.NET Language in a Nutshell, Second Edition

Name

WriteLine Procedure

Class

Microsoft.VisualBasic.FileSystem

Named Arguments

No

Syntax

WriteLine(filenumber, [output])

filenumber (required; Integer)

Any valid file number

output (optional; Object (Any))

A comma-delimited list of expressions or a ParamArray to be written to the file

Description

Writes data to a sequential file and then adds a line-feed character combination

Rules at a Glance

• output can contain multiple expressions delimited with either a comma, a semicolon, or a space.

• output can also be an Object array containing values to be written to the file indicated by filenumber.

• The following table describes how the WriteLine procedure handles certain types of data, regardless of the locale, to allow files to be read universally.

Data type	Data written to file
Numeric	Decimal separator is always a period (.)
Boolean	#TRUE# or #FALSE#
Date	#yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss# (hours specified in 24-hour format)
Null	#NULL#
Error	#ERROR errorcode #

• The WriteLine procedure automatically does the following:

  • Delimits data fields with a comma

  • Places quotation marks around string data

  • Inserts a new-line character (Chr(13) + Chr(10)) after the last item in output is written to the file

• If the output argument is omitted, WriteLine writes a blank line to the file designated by filenumber.

Programming Tips and Gotchas

The structured data written to a file using the WriteLine procedure is most suited to being read back from the file using the Input procedure.

VB.NET/VB 6 Differences ...