Function Reference

FileOpen

Opens a text file for reading or writing.

FileOpen ( "filename", mode )

Parameters

filename

Filename of the text file to open.

mode

Mode (read or write) to open the file in.
Can be a combination of the following:
  0 = Read mode
  1 = Write mode (append to end of file)
  2 = Write mode (erase previous contents)
  4 = Read raw mode
  8 = Create directory structure if it doesn't exist (See Remarks).
  16 = Force binary(byte) reading and writing mode with FileRead and FileWrite
  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 reading and writing mode. Reading does not override existing BOM
Both write modes will create the file if it does not already exist. 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

A file can only be in either read or write mode; it cannot be in both.
Some file attributes can make the opening impossible.
When opening a file in write mode, the file will be created if it does not exist.
When finished working with a file, call the FileClose function to close the file. Autoit normally closes all files upon termination, but explicitly calling FileClose is still a good idea.

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).

When using the mode=4 (Raw Read) the filename is defined as "\\.\A:" for reading sector on a floppy disk the count must be a multiple of sector size(512).

Non-existing directory structure:
------------------------------------
By default the file will not be created if the directory structure doesn't exist.
To overwrite this behaviour use the modes '1' or '2' together with mode-flag '8'!
For instance the mode-flag '9' (1 + 8) checks for the directory structure and if it doesn't exist creates it automatically and then opens the file for appending.

Example

$file = FileOpen("test.txt", 0)

; Check if file opened for reading OK
If $file = -1 Then
MsgBox(0, "Error", "Unable to open file.")
Exit
EndIf

FileClose($file)

; Another sample which automatically creates the directory structure
$file = FileOpen("test.txt", 10) ; which is similar to 2 + 8 (erase + create dir)

If $file = -1 Then
MsgBox(0, "Error", "Unable to open file.")
Exit
EndIf

FileClose($file)