The Windows File Management 22

 

 

 

Opening a File for Reading or Writing

 

The CreateFile() function can create a new file or open an existing file. You must specify the file name, creation instructions, and other attributes. When an application creates a new file, the operating system adds it to the specified directory.

 

 

 

Open a File for Writing Program Example

 

The following example uses CreateFile() to create a new file and open it for writing and WriteFile() to write a simple string synchronously to the file. A subsequent call to open this file with CreateFile() will fail until the handle is closed.

Create a new empty Win32 console application project. Give a suitable project name and change the project location if needed.

Then, add the source file and give it a suitable name.

Next, add the following source code.

 

#include <windows.h>

#include <stdio.h>

// A safer version for string manipulation

#include <strsafe.h>

 

// A prototype that receives a function name, displaying

// system error code and its respective message

void DisplayErrorBox(LPTSTR lpszFunction);

 

int wmain(int argc, WCHAR *argv[])

{

    HANDLE hFile;

    WCHAR DataBuffer[] = LThis is a test string to be written.;

    DWORD dwBytesToWrite = (DWORD)wcslen(DataBuffer);

    DWORD dwBytesWritten = 0;

 

    wprintf(L\n);

    // Verify the argument

    if(argc != 2)

    {

        wprintf(LNo argument supplied!\n);

        wprintf(LUsage: %s <file_name_to_be_wriiten>\n, argv[0]);

        wprintf(LExample: %s C:\\Mytestfile.doc\n, argv[0]);

        return 1;

    }

 

    hFile = CreateFile((LPCWSTR)argv[1],                // name of the write

                       GENERIC_WRITE,          // open for writing

                       0,                      // do not share

                       NULL,                   // default security

                       CREATE_ALWAYS,          // overwrite existing

                       FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL,  // normal file

                       NULL);                  // no attr. template

 

    if (hFile == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)

    {

        DisplayErrorBox(LCreateFile());

        return 1;

    }

      else

            wprintf(L%s was successfully created!\n, argv[1]);

 

    wprintf(LWriting %d bytes to %s.\n, dwBytesToWrite, argv[1]);

 

    // This loop would most likely never repeat for this synchronous example.

    // However, during asynchronous writes the system buffer may become full,

    // requiring additional writes until the entire buffer is written

    while (dwBytesWritten < dwBytesToWrite)

    {

        if(FALSE == WriteFile(hFile,           // open file handle

                               DataBuffer + dwBytesWritten,     // start of data to write

                                             // Note the Unicode/multibyte size!

                               2*(dwBytesToWrite - dwBytesWritten), // number of bytes to write

                               &dwBytesWritten, // number of bytes that were written

                               NULL)            // no overlapped structure

          )

        {

            DisplayErrorBox(LWriteFile());

            if(CloseHandle(hFile) == 0)

                        DisplayErrorBox(LCloseHandle());

                  else

                        wprintf(LClosing the hFile handle...\n);

 

            return 1;

        }

            else

                  wprintf(L Writing...\n);

    }

 

    wprintf(LWrote %d bytes to %s successfully.\n, dwBytesWritten, argv[1]);

 

    if(CloseHandle(hFile) == 0)

            DisplayErrorBox(LCloseHandle());

      else

            wprintf(LClosing the hFile handle...\n);

 

      return 0;

}

 

void DisplayErrorBox(LPTSTR lpszFunction)

{

    // Retrieve the system error message for the last-error code

    LPVOID lpMsgBuf;

    LPVOID lpDisplayBuf;

    DWORD dw = GetLastError();

 

    FormatMessage(

        FORMAT_MESSAGE_ALLOCATE_BUFFER |

        FORMAT_MESSAGE_FROM_SYSTEM |

        FORMAT_MESSAGE_IGNORE_INSERTS,

        NULL,

        dw,

        MAKELANGID(LANG_NEUTRAL, SUBLANG_DEFAULT),

        (LPTSTR) &lpMsgBuf,

        0, NULL );

 

    // Display the error message and clean up

    lpDisplayBuf = (LPVOID)LocalAlloc(LMEM_ZEROINIT, (lstrlen((LPCTSTR)lpMsgBuf)+lstrlen((LPCTSTR)lpszFunction)+40)*sizeof(WCHAR));

    StringCchPrintf((LPTSTR)lpDisplayBuf, LocalSize(lpDisplayBuf) / sizeof(WCHAR),  L%s failed with error %d: %s, lpszFunction, dw, lpMsgBuf);

    MessageBox(NULL, (LPCTSTR)lpDisplayBuf, LError, MB_OK);

 

    LocalFree(lpMsgBuf);

    LocalFree(lpDisplayBuf);

}

 

 

Build and run the project. The following screenshot is a sample output.

 

 

The following is the mytestfile.txt file's content as expected.

 

 

 

 

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