StreamReader/Writer help

[SciFiCoder]

Hello. This is my first post. Hopefully the first of many. I am currently starting my journey in collegiate Computer Science and as such I know some basics about programming - logic and a fledgling understanding of some languages.

Right now I am trying to create a program that uses StreamWriter and StreamReader objects to open two text files. One to read from and one to write to. The point is to build a comma-separated values parser. I'm not doing this for school, I just want to practice.

I'd like to note that I got the program to work. It printed the headers just fine. I had unexpected results with the read/write. It was able to do both, but some of the info was garbled.

The problem I have now is, even though my desk-check looks fine and it compiles fine, it doesn't write ANYTHING. Not even the headers. I have tried starting with an existing file, and starting without and it doesn't matter. All I get is a blank .txt file. My next step is to just start over, verifying that at each step the program is working correctly, however I figured I would try some DaniWeb advice. Be gentle.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.IO;

namespace FirstTry
{
    class Program
    {
        public static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            string newTextFilePath = @"C:\Users\Richard\Documents\Visual Studio 2008\Projects\FirstTry\CSV_File1.txt";
            string valueTextFilePath = @"C:\Users\Richard\Documents\Visual Studio 2008\Projects\FirstTry\CSV_FileValues.txt";
            char[] buffer = new char[1];
            const char DELIMIT = ',';
            char[] field = new char[255];
            byte buffCount = 0;

            string[] HEADERS = new string[5] {"NAME", "ADDRESS", "CITY", "STATE", "ZIPCODE"};

            try
            {
                if (File.Exists(newTextFilePath)) // Checks to see if the output file exists
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("The file exists, deleting now ...");
                    Console.Read();
                    File.Delete(newTextFilePath);
                }

                StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(newTextFilePath); // Creates new file from newTextFilePath

                if (File.Exists(newTextFilePath)) // Checks to see if the output file exists
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("The file has been recreated");
                    Console.Read();
                }

                    for (int i = 0; i < HEADERS.Length; i++) // Loop that controls the writing of the headers
                    {
                        sw.Write(HEADERS[i]);
                        if (i < HEADERS.Length -1)
                        {
                            sw.Write(DELIMIT + " ");
                        }
                    }
                    sw.Write("\n");
                

                StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(valueTextFilePath); // Opens existing file for reading

                if (File.Exists(valueTextFilePath))
                {
                    while(sr.Peek() != -1) // Checks next char for EOF
                    {
                        sr.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length); // Reads next char into buffer

                        if (buffer[0].Equals(DELIMIT)) // Control break logic checks char for ','
                        {
                            for (int k = 0; k < buffCount; k++)
                            {
                                sw.Write(field[k]); // If control breaks then write field
                            }
                                sw.Write(DELIMIT + " ");
                                buffCount = 0;
                        }
                         else
                        {
                            field[buffCount] = buffer[0]; // If char doesn't equal ',', add char to field
                            buffCount++;
                        }
                    }
                }
                else
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("File read failed: file doesn't exist");
                }
            }
            catch(Exception e)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("The process failed: ", e.ToString());
            }

        }
    }
}

[nick.crane]

You need to close your streams to flush the stream buffers before the app closes.

[SciFiCoder]

You need to close your streams to flush the stream buffers before the app closes.

So use the explicit .Close() method? I was reading about the Using statement:

Using(StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(path)){
   
   statement;

}

Is this better to use in my case, or only when there is a lot more code and more streams to deal with? Thanks for any help.

[nick.crane]

Yes. It's ok to use using in your case.
But you should still really call Close rather than leave it to the Dispose method to clean up.

[kvprajapati]

So use the explicit .Close() method? I was reading about the Using statement:

Using(StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(path)){
   
   statement;

}

Is this better to use in my case, or only when there is a lot more code and more streams to deal with? Thanks for any help.

Since StreamWriter implements IDisposable , you can wrap the StreamWriter in a using block. At the end of block execution Dispose will be called...which will Flush and Close the Stream for you. However, I would like to suggest to keep flushing each of them after each operation to make sure you don't end up with odd data.

[SciFiCoder]

Thank you guys for the help. It worked. I tried just using .Flush() on the writer object after it's constructor, however this didn't work. It wasn't until I closed both objects that the program ran smoothly.

[nick.crane]

Your welcome. If solved, then please mark the thread solved.