File Class

File Class

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Namespace

System.IO

Creatable

No

Description

The File class has a number of members that allow you to retrieve information about files, and to move and delete files. All of the members of the File class are shared methods, so they can be called without instantiating any objects.

The following table lists some of the more useful and interesting members of the File class. Those marked with an asterisk (*) have separate entries in this chapter.

Member	Description
AppendText Method	Opens an existing text file, ready to add additional text to the end of the file
Copy Method	Copies an existing file to a new location
Create, CreateText Methods	Opens a new file for output
Delete Method	Deletes an existing file
Exists Method *	Tests a file path to see if it exists
GetAttributes Method	Retrieves the attributes for a given file
GetCreationTime Method	Retrieves the date and time that a file was originally created
GetLastAccessTime Method	Retrieves the date and time that a file was last accessed
GetLastWriteTime Method	Retrieves the date and time that a file was last written
Move Method	Moves an existing file to a new location
Open, OpenRead, OpenText, OpenWrite Methods	Opens an existing file for input or output
SetAttributes Method	Modifies the attributes of an existing file

Version Differences

Visual Basic 2005 includes a My.Computer.FileSystem object that provides file management functionality.

See Also

Directory Class