OpenTextFile Method

Opens a specified file and returns a TextStream object that can be used to read from, write to, or append to the file.

object.OpenTextFile(filename[, iomode[, create[, format]]])

Arguments

• object
  Required. Object is always the name of a FileSystemObject.

• filename
  Required. String expression that identifies the file to open.

• iomode
  Optional. Can be one of three constants: ForReading, ForWriting, or ForAppending.

• create
  Optional. Boolean value that indicates whether a new file can be created if the specified filename doesn't exist. The value is True if a new file is created, False if it isn't created. If omitted, a new file isn't created.

• format
  Optional. One of three Tristate values used to indicate the format of the opened file. If omitted, the file is opened as ASCII.

Settings

The iomode argument can have any of the following settings:

Constant	Value	Description
ForReading	1	Open a file for reading only. You can't write to this file.
ForWriting	2	Open a file for writing.
ForAppending	8	Open a file and write to the end of the file.

The format argument can have any of the following settings:

Constant	Value	Description
TristateUseDefault	-2	Opens the file using the system default.
TristateTrue	-1	Opens the file as Unicode.
TristateFalse	0	Opens the file as ASCII.

Remarks

The following code illustrates the use of the OpenTextFile method.

var ForReading = 1, ForWriting = 2, ForAppending = 8;
// The following line contains constants for the OpenTextFile
// format argument, which is not used in the code below.
var TristateUseDefault = -2, TristateTrue = -1, TristateFalse = 0;

var fso = new ActiveXObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject");

// Open the file for output.
var filename = "c:\\testfile.txt";

var f = fso.OpenTextFile(filename, ForWriting, true);

// Write to the file.
f.WriteLine("Hello world!");
f.WriteLine("The quick brown fox");
f.Close();

// Open the file for input.
f = fso.OpenTextFile(filename, ForReading);

// Read from the file and display the results.
while (!f.AtEndOfStream)
    {
    var r = f.ReadLine();
    document.write (r + "<br />");
    }
f.Close();

    Const ForReading = 1, ForWriting = 2, ForAppending = 8
    ' The following line contains constants for the OpenTextFile
    ' format argument, which is not used in the code below.
    Const TristateUseDefault = -2, TristateTrue = -1, TristateFalse = 0
    Dim fso, MyFile, FileName, TextLine
    
    Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
    
    ' Open the file for output.
    FileName = "c:\testfile.txt"
    
    Set MyFile = fso.OpenTextFile(FileName, ForWriting, True)
    
    ' Write to the file.
    MyFile.WriteLine "Hello world!"
    MyFile.WriteLine "The quick brown fox"
    MyFile.Close
    
    ' Open the file for input.
    Set MyFile = fso.OpenTextFile(FileName, ForReading)
    
    ' Read from the file and display the results.
    Do While MyFile.AtEndOfStream <> True
        TextLine = MyFile.ReadLine
        Document.Write TextLine & "<br />"
    Loop
    MyFile.Close

Applies To:

FileSystemObject Object

See Also

Concepts

Working with Files

Reference

CreateTextFile Method

OpenAsTextStream Method

Change History

Date	History	Reason
September 2009	Added a comment to the examples.	Information enhancement.
April 2009	Modified examples.	Information enhancement.