The FileStream class
The FileStream class allows you to handle file processing. This is the lowest class deriving from Stream that you can use if you want to work with files.
In order to use a FileStream object, you must create an instance of it by using one of it's constructor.
The complete version of this constructor is:
string fileName, // The name of the file
FileMode mode, // The mode of the file.
// May be Append, Create, CreateNew, OpenOrCreate, Truncate
FileAccess access, // The access to use for the file.
// May be Read, ReadWrite, Write.
FileShare share, // Specify the sharing mode.
// May be None, Read, ReadWrite, Write.
int buffSize, // The size of the buffer
bool isAsync // Should we access the FileStream asynchronously
);
As FileStream derives from Stream, it implements all the methods that Stream exposes and two more methods: Lock and Unlock.
These two methods allow to lock or unlock the access of a given byte range in the file. These two methods accepts the same parameters, the first one is a long and specify the position from which to begin locking or unlocking. The second one specify how many bytes should be locked or unlocked.
| Advantages | Drawbacks |
|---|---|
| As it inherits from Stream, it may be used whenever a Stream is needed | Allows only byte and byte array reading/writing |
| Allow locking/unlocking part of a file | As it can only write bytes, the conversion must be handled by the application |
Now that we've described the FileStream class, we can go on to the FileStream helper classes: