Function Reference

FileOpen

Opens a text file for reading or writing.

FileOpen ( "filename" [, mode] )

Parameters

filename

Filename of the text file to open.

mode

[optional] Mode to open the file in.
Can be a combination of the following:
  0 = Read mode (default)
  1 = Write mode (append to end of file)
  2 = Write mode (erase previous contents)
  8 = Create directory structure if it doesn't exist (See Remarks).
  16 = Force binary mode (See Remarks).
  32 = Use Unicode UTF16 Little Endian reading and writing mode. Reading does not override existing BOM.
  64 = Use Unicode UTF16 Big Endian reading and writing mode. Reading does not override existing BOM.
  128 = Use Unicode UTF8 (with BOM) reading and writing mode. Reading does not override existing BOM.
  256 = Use Unicode UTF8 (without BOM) reading and writing mode.
  16384 = When opening for reading and no BOM is present, use full file UTF8 detection. If this is not used then only the initial part of the file is checked for UTF8.
The folder path must already exist (except using mode '8' - See Remarks).

Return Value

Success:	Returns a file "handle" for use with subsequent file functions.
Failure:	Returns -1 if error occurs.

Remarks

The file handle must be closed with the FileClose() function.

A file may fail to open due to access rights or attributes.

The default mode when writing text is ANSI - use the unicode flags to change this. When writing unicode files the Windows default mode (and the fastest in AutoIt due to the least conversion) is UTF16 Little Endian (mode 32).

Opening a file in write mode creates the file if it does not exist. Directories are not created unless the correct flag is used.

When reading and writing via the same file handle, the FileSetPos() function must be used to update the current file position.

A file can be read as binary (byte) data by using FileOpen with the binary flag - in this case count is in bytes rather than characters. A count value that is too large can lead to AutoIt stopping with a memory allocation failure.

FileClose, FileFlush, FileRead, FileReadLine, FileWrite, FileWriteLine, FileGetPos, FileSetPos

Example