C# - Reading Lines From a File Until the End of File is Reached

Last Updated : 27 Dec, 2021

Given a file, now our task is to read lines from the file until the end of the file using C#. Before reading the lines from a file we must have some data, so first we need an empty file in our path and then insert lines in our file and then we read lines from a file. So to do this task we use two basic operations that are reading and writing. The file becomes a stream when we open the file for writing and reading, here the stream means a sequence of bytes that is used for communication. So to our task, we use:

Path: For reading a file from any source we have to need the location/path. A Path is a string that includes a file path in a system.

 @"c:\folder\file_name.txt"

We will check if the file exists in the path or not by using File.Exists(path) method

StreamWriter: StreamWriter is used to write a stream of data/lines to a file.

StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(myfilepath)

StreamReader: StreamReader is used to read a stream of data/lines from a file.

StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(myfilepath)

Peek: Used to read the data/lines from the file till the end of the file.

StreamReaderObject.Peek()

So all are placed in try() block to catch the exceptions that occur.

Example: Consider the path and file are:

// C# program to read lines from a file 
// until the end of file is reached
using System;
using System.IO;

class GFG{
    
public static void Main()
{
    
    // File name is data
    // File path is the following path 
    string myfilepath = @"c:\sravan\data.txt";
    try
    {
        
        // Check if file exists or not
        if (File.Exists(path))
        {
            File.Delete(path);
        }
        
        // Write data into file using StreamWriter through the path
        using (StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(myfilepath))
        {
            sw.WriteLine("hello");
            sw.WriteLine("geeks for geeks");
            sw.WriteLine("welcome to c#");
         
        }
        
        // Read the file present in the path
        using (StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(myfilepath))
        {
            
            // Iterating the file
            while (sr.Peek() >= 0)
            {
                
                // Read the data in the file until the peak
                Console.WriteLine(sr.ReadLine());
            }
        }
    }
    
    // Caught the exception
    catch (Exception e)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("The process failed: {0}", e.ToString());
    }
    Console.Read();
}