VBScript in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition

Name

File.OpenAsTextStream Method

Syntax

                  oFileObj.OpenAsTextStream ([IOMode[, Format]])

oFileObj

Use: Required

Data Type: File object

A File object.

IOMode

Use: Optional

Data Type: Long

A constant specifying the purpose for opening the file.

Format

Use: Optional

Data Type: Long

A constant specifying ASCII or Unicode format.

Return Value

A TextStream object.

Description

Opens the referenced text file for reading or writing.

Rules at a Glance

• IOMode can be one of the following values:

  Constant	Value	Description
  ForAppending	8	Opens the file in append mode; that is, the current contents of the file are protected, and new data written to the file is placed at the end of the file.
  ForReading	1	Opens the file for reading; you can’t write to a file that has been opened for reading.
  ForWriting	2	Opens the file for writing; all previous file content is overwritten by new data.

  The default value is 1, ForReading.

• The Scripting Runtime type library defines constants of the IOMode enumeration that can be used in place of their numeric equivalents for the IOMode argument. You can use them in your scripts in either of two ways. You can define the constants yourself by adding the following code to your script:

  Const ForReading = 1
  Const ForWriting = 2
  Const ForAppending = 8

  You can also include the ASP METADATA tag in global.asa or include the following line in a Windows Script Host (.wsf ) file in order to access the constants from the Scripting Runtime type library:

  <reference GUID="{420B2830-E718-11CF-893D-00A0C9054228}" ...