VB .NET Language in a Nutshell

Name

WriteLine Procedure

Class

Microsoft.VisualBasic.FileSystem

Named Arguments

No

Syntax

WriteLine(filenumber, [output])

filenumber

Use: Required

Data Type: Integer

Any valid file number

output

Use: Optional

Data Type: 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. ...