UserGuide - Reading and writing files

This example will write 100 random records each containing a byte, a floating-point number, a long integer and a string. It then reads all the records back and displays them in the debug window.

It demonstrates the GetTemporaryDirectory(), CreateFile(), OpenFile(), Eof() and a number of Read and Write data instructions too.

It works fine as far as it goes, but has a drawback. As the string value has a variable length - you can't randomly access the records because you can't predict where each new record will start in the file. They must be all be read back in the same sequence as they were written. This isn't a problem with the small number of records created here but this could be an inconvenience with a larger file. PureBasic offers a way to handle this situation too - but an example would be too complex for this topic. See the Database sections of the help-file or reference manual to see how it could be done. 
  EnableExplicit
  ; Define the constants:
  #MAXBYTE = 255
  #MAXLONG = 2147483647
  
  ; Define some variables.
  Define.f Float
  Define.l Count, File
  Define.s Folder, FileName, String
  
  ; Create a temporary file name.
  Folder = GetTemporaryDirectory()
  FileName = Folder + "test.data"
  
  ; Create the temporary file.
  ; If #PB_Any is used, CreateFile returns the file's number.  
  ; Useful if you may have more than one file open simultaneously.
  File = CreateFile(#PB_Any, FileName)
  
  If File
    ; If this was successful - write 100 random records.
    For Count = 1 To 100
      
      ; Write a random byte (0 - 255).
      WriteByte(File, Random(#MAXBYTE))
      
      ; Create and write a random float.
      ; This calculation is there to make the number have a floating-point component (probably).
      Float = Random(#MAXLONG) / ((Random(7) + 2) * 5000)
      WriteFloat(File, Float)
      
      ; Write a random long.
      WriteLong(File, Random(#MAXLONG))
      
      ; Create and write a random string in Unicode format.
      ; Note the use of WriteStringN to delimit the string with an end of line marker.
      String = "String " + StrU(Random(#MAXLONG))
      WriteStringN(File, String, #PB_Unicode)
      
    Next Count
    
    ; Close the file.
    CloseFile(File)
    
  Else
    ; If this was unsuccessful.
    Debug "Could not create the file: " + FileName 
    
  EndIf
  
  ; Open the file for reading this time.
  File = ReadFile(#PB_Any, FileName)
  
  If File
    ; If this was successful - read and display records from the file.
    
    ; Reset the counter.
    Count = 1
    
    ; Loop until the 'end of file' is reached.
    ; This will read all of the records regardless of how many there are.
    While Eof(File) = 0
      
      ; Print a header line.
      Debug "------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"
      
      Debug "[" + StrU(Count) + "]"
      Count + 1
      ; Read a byte value and print it.
      Debug StrU(ReadByte(File), #PB_Byte)
      
      ; Read a float value.
      Debug StrF(ReadFloat(File))
      
      ; Read a long value.
      Debug StrU(ReadLong(File), #PB_Long)
      
      ; Read a string value.
      Debug ReadString(File, #PB_Unicode)
      
    Wend
    
    ; Print the trailing line.
    Debug "------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"
    
    ; Close the file.
    CloseFile(File)
    
    ; Tidy up.
    DeleteFile(FileName)
    
  Else
    ; If this was unsuccessful.
    Debug "Could not open the file: " + FileName
    
  EndIf

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