Howto clear a textfile without deleting file ?

Question

Question: I have an ini file which I need to clear before I add info to it.

Unfortunately, if I just delete the file, the permissions are gone as well.

Is there a way to delete a file's content without deleting the file ?

Answer 1

Just open the file in truncate (i.e. non-append) mode and close it. Then its contents are gone. Or use the shortcut in the My namespace:

My.Computer.FileSystem.WriteAllText("filename", "", False)

Answer 2

This should probably work:

using (File.Create("your filename"));

Here, the using does not have a block because of the ; at the end of the line. The File.Create truncates the file itself, and the using closes it immediately.

Answer 3

I'm not 100% sure, but you can try this:

File.WriteAllText( filename, "");

I'm not sure if this will delete, and recreate the file (in that case your permission problem will persist, or if it will clean out the file. Try it!

Answer 4

    String path = "c:/file.ini";
    using (var stream = new FileStream(path, FileMode.Truncate))
    {
        using (var writer = new StreamWriter(stream))
        {
            writer.Write("data");
        }
    }