File Access

File input/output (I/O) consists of being able to manage the files and directories on a system as well as being able to read from and write to those files. Both VB 6.0 and .NET provide similar functionality for performing these actions. This chapter has two primary sections. The first section covers managing the files and directories on your system. The second section explains how to open, read, write, and close text files.The VB 6.0 functions discussed in this chapter can also be referenced in .NET. VB .NET includes all the functions by default. If you want to use them in C#, add a reference to the library Microsoft Visual Basic .NET Runtime. Do this by selecting Project ‣ Add Reference. The functions are in the class Microsoft.VisualBasic.FileSystem.Although you can use all the VB 6.0 file and directory management functions in .NET, the areas dealing with VB .NET and C# will only make reference to the functionality found in the .NET native classes.