System.IO

Namespace: System.IO

This namespace contains types that allow reading and writing files and data streams, and types that represent and operate on files and directories.

Assembly: mscorlib.dll

Classes

  • File Provides static methods and properties to create, copy, delete, move, and open files.
  • Directory Provides static methods for the creation, moving, and enumeration of directories and subdirectories.
  • Path Exposes static members for creating, manipulating, and retrieving information about paths and file names.
  • Stream Abstract base class and a representative of a stream of bytes.
  • FileInfo Provides instance methods for the creation, copying, deletion, moving, and opening of files, and aids in their creation.
  • DirectoryInfo Provides instance methods for the creation, moving, and enumeration of directories and subdirectories.
  • MemoryStream A stream that uses memory to store its contents.
  • FileStream Exposes a Stream around a file, supporting both synchronous and asynchronous read and write operations.
  • StreamReader Implements a TextReader that reads from a byte-input stream in a particular encoding.
  • StreamWriter Implements a TextWriter for writing characters to a stream in a particular encoding.

Structs

  • FileAttributes Defines attributes for files and directories.
  • FileMode Specifies how the operating system should open a file.
  • FileAccess Specifies the constants that define whether a file can be read from or written to.

Enums

  • SeekOrigin Specifies the starting point for measuring and comparing the current position of a stream.

Common Usage Example

// Reading from a text file using (StreamReader sr = new StreamReader("myFile.txt")) { string line; while ((line = sr.ReadLine()) != null) { Console.WriteLine(line); } } // Writing to a text file using (StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter("myFile.txt", true)) // true to append { sw.WriteLine("This is a new line."); } // Checking if a file exists if (File.Exists("myFile.txt")) { Console.WriteLine("File exists."); }