Files, streams, etc

FileSnippets.cs

//1.) for small files only, load all contents into memory
string content = File.ReadAllText("path/to/TextFile.txt", Encoding.UTF8);
 
//2.) ...or read lines into an array
string[] linesArr = File.ReadAllLines("path/to/TextFile.txt", Encoding.UTF8);
foreach (string line in linesArr) {
 //do stuff with each line.
}

//3.) ... or open a stream for reading (StreamReader)
string content = String.Empty;
FileStream fs = new FileStream("path/to/TextFile.txt", FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read);
using (StreamReader streamReader = new StreamReader(fs, Encoding.UTF8))
{
  content = streamReader.ReadToEnd();
}

 
//4.) For larger files, read line by line
FileStream fs = new FileStream("path/to/TextFile.txt", FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read);
using (StreamReader streamReader = new StreamReader(fs, Encoding.UTF8))
{
    string line = String.Empty;
    while ( (line = streamReader.ReadLine() ) != null)
    {
        //do stuff with line... 
    }
}


//5.) READ Async example
static async void ReadFileAsync() {
   
   FileStream fs = new FileStream("path/to/TextFile.txt", FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read);
   using (StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(fs, Encoding.UTF8))
   {
      string content = await reader.ReadToEndAsync();
      //internal to this FN, control exits in the above line to the caller.. (i.e. the method execution is suspended)... and continues below once all contents read
     //... file read finished, do stuff with content
   }
}

//5.b) USAGE
Task t = new Task(ReadFileAsync);
t.Start(); //start reading... (async, does NOT block/wait until reading is finished)
//next statement immediately;