Working with Files and File Systems in Recital

Working with Files and File Systems in Recital

Handling Text Files in Recital

Recital includes functions allowing text files to be created, opened and closed and their contents to be read, overwritten or appended to.

Opening and Creating Text Files in Recital

• fcreate() - create a new text file, returning a file handle

numeric = fcreate(<filename as character>)

• fopen() - open an existing text file, returning a file handle

numeric = fopen(<filename as character> [, <mode as numeric>])

Mode	Description
	If not specified, read-only
0	Read-only
1	Write only. Existing contents are deleted.
2	Append. Text may be added to the end of the existing contents.

Closing Text Files in Recital

• fclose() - close a text file opened with fopen() or fcreate()

logical = fclose(<filehandle as numeric>)

Writing to a Text File using Recital

• fputs() - write a character string to a text file, returning the number of bytes written

numeric = fputs(<filehandle as numeric>, <string as character> [, <bytes as numeric> [, <endofline as character>]])

Reading From a Text File using Recital

• fgets() - read and return a line from a text file

character = fgets(<filehandle as numeric> [, <bytes as numeric> [, <endofline as character>]])

• feof() - evaluate if the record pointer is at the end of file marker

logical = feof(<filehandle as numeric>)

Example

open database southwind
use example
fp=fcreate("names.txt")
count=0
do while not eof()
    count = count + fputs(fp,trim(last_name) + ", "+trim(first_name))
    skip
enddo
fclose(fp)
echo str(count,5) + " bytes written.\n"
 
fp = fopen("names.txt")
count = 0
do while not feof(fp)
    if left(fgets(fp),5) = "Smith"
        ++count
    endif
enddo
fclose(fp)
echo str(count,5) + " Smiths found.\n"
close databases

Checking Whether a File Exists in Recital

• file() - check whether a file exists

logical = file(<filename as character>)

Moving, Copying and Deleting Files with Recital

• rename - move a file

rename <sourcefile as character> [to] <targetfile as character>

• copy file - copy a file

copy file <sourcefile as character> [to] <targetfile as character>

• erase - delete a file or files

erase <filename as character [, filename as character [, ...]]>

• delete file - delete a file

delete file <filename as character>

Accessing File Attributes in Recital

• fileinfo() - return a comma-separated string containing information about a file

character = fileinfo(<filename as character>)

• fsize() - return the size of a file

numeric = fsize(<filename as character>)

• fdate() - return the last modification date of a file

date = fdate(<filename as character>)

• ftime() - return the last modification time of a file

character = ftime(<filename as character>)

• fullpath() - return the full path of a file

character = fullpath(<filename as character>)

• basename() - return the base filename of a file

character = basename(<filename as character>)

Miscellaneous File and File System Commands and Functions

• diskspace() - return the available space on the current disk

numeric = diskspace()