.NET API Documentation

System.IO Namespace

Provides types that allow reading and writing files and data streams, and types that represent and operate on files and directories. This namespace includes classes for working with file system operations, streams, and data serialization.

Key Types

• File

  Provides static methods for the creation, copying, deletion, moving, and opening of files. It also provides methods for creating a Stream to a file, appending to a file, determining whether a file exists, and assisting in the creation of file streams.

• Directory

  Provides static methods for the creation, moving, and enumeration of directories and subdirectories. It also provides methods for obtaining the parent directory or drive of a path.

• Stream

  Abstract base class for all streams. A stream is a sequence of bytes, and a top-level stream abstractly manages this sequence of bytes. Streams can be used to read bytes from or write bytes to a storage medium such as a file, a network socket, or memory.

• StreamReader

  Implements a TextReader that reads characters from a byte stream in a particular encoding.

• StreamWriter

  Implements a TextWriter for writing characters to a stream in a particular encoding.

• Path

  Provides methods for creating, manipulating, and retrieving information about file and directory paths. This class is immutable.

• FileInfo

  Provides instance methods for the creation, copying, deletion, moving, and opening of files, and aids in their creation. This class is immutable.

• DirectoryInfo

  Provides instance methods for the creation, moving, and enumeration of directories and subdirectories. This class is immutable.

Common Operations

Example Usage: Reading a Text File

using System;
using System.IO;

public class Example
{
    public static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        string filePath = "myFile.txt";
        try
        {
            // Read the file line by line
            using (StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(filePath))
            {
                string line;
                while ((line = sr.ReadLine()) != null)
                {
                    Console.WriteLine(line);
                }
            }
        }
        catch (Exception e)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("The file could not be read:");
            Console.WriteLine(e.Message);
        }
    }
}