Common I/O Tasks

The xtd::io namespace provides several classes that allow for various actions, such as reading and writing, to be performed on files, directories, and streams. For more information, see File and Stream I/O.

Preamble

Prefer in your application to use the Input/output library and Filesystem library of the std.

xtd has its own IO API because the Filesystem library doesn't work on all OS (like for example iOS).

Some features exist only in the xtd API like binary reader/writer, stream reader/writer, string reader/writer and text reader/writer.

Common File Tasks

To do this...	See the example in this topic...
Create a text file	xtd::io::file::create_text method xtd::io::file_info::create_text method xtd::io::file::create method xtd::io::file_info::create method
Write to a text file	How to: Write Text to a File How to: Write a Text File
Read from a text file	How to: Read Text from a File
Append text to a file	How to: Open and Append to a Log File xtd::io::file::append_text method xtd::io::file_info.append_text method
Rename or move a file	xtd::io::file::move method xtd::io::file_info::move_to method
Delete a file	xtd::io::file::remove method xtd::io::file_info::remove method
Copy a file	xtd::io::file::copy method xtd::io::file_info::copy_to method
Get the size of a file	xtd::io::file_info::length property
Get the attributes of a file	xtd::io::file::get_attributes method
Set the attributes of a file	xtd::io::file::set_attributes method
Determine whether a file exists	xtd::io::file::exists method
Read from a binary file	How to: Read and Write to a Newly Created Data File
Write to a binary file	How to: Read and Write to a Newly Created Data File
Retrieve a file name extension	xtd::io::path::get_extension method
Retrieve the fully qualified path of a file	xtd::io::path::get_full_path method
Retrieve the file name and extension from a path	xtd::io::path::get_file_name method
Change the extension of a file	xtd::io::path::change_extension method

Common Directory Tasks

To do this...	See the example in this topic...
Access a file in a special folder such as My Documents	How to: Write Text to a File
Create a directory	xtd::io::directory::create_directory method xtd::io::file_info::directory property
Create a subdirectory	xtd::io::directory_info.create_subdirectory method
Rename or move a directory	xtd::io::directory::move method xtd::io::directory_info::move_to method
Copy a directory	How to: Copy Directories
Delete a directory	xtd::io::directory::remove method xtd::io::directory_info::remove method
See the files and subdirectories in a directory	How to: Enumerate Directories and Files
Find the size of a directory	xtd::io::directory_info::length class
Determine whether a directory exists	xtd::io::directory::exists method

See also

• Tutorials
• Documentation