wxTextFile
generated from ../src/mod_io/textfile.cpp
The wxTextFile is a simple class which allows to work with text files on line by line basis.
It also understands the differences in line termination characters under different platforms
and will not do anything bad to files with "non native" line termination sequences - in fact,
it can be also used to modify the text files and change the line termination characters from
one type (say DOS) to another (say Unix).
One word of warning: the class is not at all optimized for big files and thus it will load the
file entirely into memory when opened. Of course, you should not work in this way with large files
(as an estimation, anything over 1 Megabyte is surely too big for this class). On the other hand,
it is not a serious limitation for small files like configuration files or program sources which
are well handled by wxTextFile.
The typical things you may do with wxTextFile in order are:
- Create and open it: this is done with either create or open function which opens the file (name may be specified either as the argument to these functions or in the constructor), reads its contents in memory (in the case of open) and closes it.
- Work with the lines in the file: this may be done either with "direct access" properties like lines or with "sequential access" properties which include firstLine/nextLine and also lastLine/prevLine. For the sequential access properties the current line number is maintained: currentLine and may be changed with goToLine.
- Add/remove lines to the file: addLine and insertLine add new lines while removeLine deletes the existing ones. clear resets the file to empty.
- Save your changes: notice that the changes you make to the file will not be saved automatically; calling close or doing nothing discards them! To save the changes you must explicitly call write - here, you may also change the line termination type if you wish
var file = new wxTextFile("text.txt");
file.line[0] = "This is the first line";
Constants
wxTextFileType
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| None | |
| Unix | |
| Dos | |
| Mac |
Class Methods
getEOL
getEOL(Type = typeDefault) : String
| Name | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type | wxTextFileType | typeDefault |
Get the line termination string corresponding to given constant. typeDefault is the value defined during the compilation and corresponds to the native format of the platform, i.e. it will be wxTextFileType.Dos under Windows, wxTextFileType.Unix under Unix (including Mac OS X when compiling with the Apple Developer Tools) and wxTextFileType.Mac under Mac OS (including Mac OS X when compiling with CodeWarrior).
Constructor
wxTextFile
wxTextFile()
wxTextFile(FileName)
| Name | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| FileName | String | The filename |
Constructs a new wxTextFile object. The file is not loaded into memory. Use open to do it.
Properties
| Name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
currentLine ![]() |
Integer | Returns the current line: it has meaning only when you're using firstLine/nextLine properties, it doesn't get updated when you're using "direct access" property lines. firstLine and lastLine also change the value of the current line, as well as goToLine. |
eof ![]() |
Boolean | Returns true when end of file is reached. When the file is not open, undefined is returned. |
| firstLine | wxTextLine | Get the first line. |
guessType ![]() |
wxTextFileType | Guess the type of file (which is supposed to be opened). If sufficiently many lines of the file are in DOS/Unix/Mac format, the corresponding value will be returned. If the detection mechanism fails wxTextFileType_None is returned |
| lastLine | wxTextLine | Get the last line |
lineCount ![]() |
Integer | Number of lines in the file. |
| lines | Array of wxTextLine | Get an array of lines |
| nextLine | wxTextLine | Get the nextline |
opened ![]() |
Boolean | Is the file open? |
| prevLine | wxTextLine | Get the previous line |
Methods
addLine
addLine(Line,
Type)
| Name | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Line | String | The line to add | |
| Type | wxTextFileType |
Adds a line to the end of file. When Type is omitted the native default is used.
clear
clear()
Removes all lines
close
close() : Boolean
Closes the file and frees memory, losing all changes. Use write if you want to save them.
create
create() : Boolean
create(FileName) : Boolean
| Name | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| FileName | String | The name of the file to create. |
Creates the file with the given name or the name which was given in the constructor. The array of file lines is initially empty. It will fail if the file already exists, open should be used in this case.
exists
exists() : Boolean
Return true if file exists - the name of the file should have been specified in the constructor before calling exists().
gotoLine
gotoLine(Line)
| Name | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Line | Integer |
Changes the value returned by currentLine.
insertLine
insertLine(Line,
Pos,
Type = typeDefault)
| Name | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Line | String | The line to insert (without the end-of-line character(s)). | |
| Pos | Integer | The line position | |
| Type | wxTextFileType | typeDefault |
Insert a line before the line number Pos.
open
open() : Boolean
open(Encoding = UTF-8,
FileName = "") : Boolean
| Name | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Encoding | String | UTF-8 | |
| FileName | String | The name of the file to open |
Opens the file with the given name or the name which was given in the constructor and also loads file in memory on success. It will fail if the file does not exist, create should be used in this case. When no encoding is specified the file is opened in UTF-8.
removeLine
removeLine(Line)
| Name | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Line | Integer | The line to remove. |
Removes the line from the file
write
write(Type = wxTextFileType.None,
Encoding = UTF-8) : Boolean
| Name | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type | wxTextFileType | wxTextFileType.None | |
| Encoding | String | UTF-8 |
Change the file on disk. The Type parameter allows you to change the file format (default argument means "don't change type") and may be used to convert, for example, DOS files to Unix.

© 2002 - 2007 Franky Braem.