Visual Basic® 2008 Programmer's Reference

Appendix U. File-System Classes

A Visual Basic application can take three basic approaches to file system manipulation: Visual Basic methods, System.IO Framework classes, and the My.Computer.FileSystem namespace. This appendix summaries the properties, methods, and events provided by these approaches.

Visual Basic Methods

The following table summarizes the Visual Basic methods for working with files. They let a program create, open, read, write, and learn about files.

Method	Purpose
EOF	Returns True if the file is at the end of file.
FileClose	Closes an open file.
FileGet	Reads data from a file opened in Random and Binary mode into a variable.
FileGetObject	Reads data as an object from a file opened in Random and Binary mode into a variable.
FileOpen	Opens a file for reading or writing. Parameters indicate the mode (Append, Binary, Input, Output, or Random), access type (Read, Write, or ReadWrite), and sharing (Shared, LockRead, LockWrite, or LockReadWrite).
FilePut	Writes data from a variable into a file opened for Random or Binary access.
FilePutObject	Writes an object from a variable into a file opened for Random or Binary access.
FreeFile	Returns a file number that is not currently associated with any file in this application. You should use FreeFile to get file numbers rather than using arbitrary numbers such as 1.
Input	Reads data written into a file by the Write method back into a variable.
InputString	Reads a specific number of characters from the file.
LineInput	Returns the next line of text from ...