View Category
Files
Reading

Read the contents of a file into a string

python
contents = open('myFile.txt', 'rt').read()
clojure
(slurp "/tmp/foobar")
fsharp
let file = new FileStream("test.txt", FileMode.Open)
let buffer = new String((new BinaryReader(file)).ReadChars(Convert.ToInt32(file.Length)))
let stream = new StreamReader("test.txt")
let buffer = stream.ReadToEnd()
let buffer = File.ReadAllText("test.txt")

Process a file one line at a time

Open the source file to your solution and print each line in the file, prefixed by the line number, like:
1> First line of file
2> Second line of file
3> Third line of file
python
for no, line in enumerate(open(__file__)):
print "{0}> {1}".format(no+1, line.rstrip())
clojure
(defn read-line-by-line [fn]
(reduce str (map (partial format "%d> %s\n")
(iterate inc 1)
(read-lines fn))))
fsharp
let stream = new StreamReader("test.txt")
let mutable i = 1
let mutable line = stream.ReadLine()
while (line <> null) do printfn "%d> %s" i line ; line <- stream.ReadLine() ; i <- i + 1 done
stream.Close()
let proc_a_line (filename : string) proc =
let stream = new StreamReader(filename)
let rec proc_a_line' count line =
match line with
| null -> stream.Close()
| _ -> proc count line ; proc_a_line' (count + 1) (stream.ReadLine())
proc_a_line' 1 (stream.ReadLine())

// ------

let _ = proc_a_line "test.txt" (fun i line -> printfn "%d> %s" i line)
let reader(filename : string) = seq {
use sr = new StreamReader(filename)
while not sr.EndOfStream do
let line = sr.ReadLine()
yield line
done
}

// ------

reader("test.txt") |> Seq.iteri (fun i line -> printfn "%d> %s" (i + 1) line)
File.ReadAllLines("test.txt") |> Array.iteri (fun i line -> printfn "%d> %s" (i + 1) line)
// Unlike ReadAllLines, ReadLines (new in .NET 4) only reads the file
// one line at a time, rather than reading the entire file into an array first.

open System.IO
File.ReadLines("test.txt") |> Seq.iteri (fun i line -> printfn "%d> %s" (i + 1) line)
Writing

Write a string to a file

python
open('test.txt', 'wt').write('Hello World!')
clojure
(with-out-writer "output.txt" (println "Hello file!"))
fsharp
let stream = new StreamWriter("test.txt", false)
stream.WriteLine("This line overwrites file contents!")

Append to a file

python
open('test.txt', 'at').write('Hello World!\n')
clojure
(with-out-append-writer "output.txt" (println "This is appended to the file"))
fsharp
let stream = new StreamWriter("test.txt", true)
stream.WriteLine("This line appended to file!")
Directories

Process each file in a directory

python
import os
results = (process(f) for f in os.listdir(".") if os.path.isfile(f))
clojure
; (defn process-file [f] "process one file" body...)
(map process-file (.listFiles (File. ".")))
fsharp
let dirname = "c:\\"

let processFile filename = printfn "%s" filename
for filename in Directory.GetFiles(dirname) do processFile filename done
let dirname = "c:\\"

Directory.GetFiles(dirname) |> Array.iter (fun filename -> printfn "%s" filename)

Process each file in a directory recursively

python
import os
results = (process(os.path.join(p, n)) for p,d,l in os.walk(".") for n in l)
clojure
; (defn process-file [f] "process one file" body...)
(map process-file (file-seq (File. ".")))
fsharp
let processDirectory dirname proc =
let rec processDirectory' dirname' =
Directory.GetFiles(dirname') |> Array.iter proc
Directory.GetDirectories(dirname') |> Array.iter processDirectory'
processDirectory' dirname

// ------

let dirname = "c:\\"

processDirectory dirname (fun filename -> printfn "%s" filename)