Writes data to the file associated with the specified file number. The file number was assigned to the file with the FileOpen function.
FileWriteEx ( file#, blob {, length })
FileWriteEx ( file#, string )
Argument |
Description |
|---|---|
file# |
The integer assigned to the file when the file was opened |
blob or string |
A blob or string whose value is the data you want to write to the file. |
length |
In text or stream mode, the number of bytes to be written. The default value is the length of the file. |
Long. Returns the number of bytes written if it succeeds and -1 if an error occurs. FileWriteEx returns -1 if you attempt to write to a string in stream mode or to a blob in line mode. If any argument’s value is null, FileWriteEx returns null.
FileWriteEx returns long
Unlike the FileWrite function that it replaces,
the FileWriteEx function returns a long value.
FileWriteEx can write to files with ANSI, UTF-8, UTF-16LE, and UTF-16BE encoding.
FileWriteEx writes its data at the position identified by the file pointer. If the file was opened with the writemode argument set to Replace!, the file pointer is initially at the beginning of the file. After each call to FileWriteEx, the pointer is immediately after the last write. If the file was opened with the writemode argument set to Append!, the file pointer is initially at the end of the file and moves to the end of the file after each write.
FileWriteEx sets the file pointer following the last character written. If the file was opened in line mode, FileWriteEx writes a carriage return (CR) and linefeed (LF) after the last character in variable and places the file pointer after the CR and LF.
If the file was opened in stream or text mode, FileWriteEx writes the full contents of the string or blob or the next length bytes, whichever is shorter. The optional length parameter applies only to blob data. If the length parameter is provided when the datatype of the second parameter is string, the code will not compile.
If the data is in a string and the associated file uses ANSI or UTF-8 encoding, FileWriteEx converts the string to ANSI or UTF-8 encoding before saving it to the associated file. If the file is opened in stream mode, no conversion is done.
If the file does not have a byte-order mark (BOM) it is created automatically.
This script excerpt opens EMP_DATA.TXT and writes the string New Employees at the end of the file. The variable li_FileNum stores the number of the opened file:
integer li_FileNum
li_FileNum = FileOpen("C:\HR\EMP_DATA.TXT", &
TextMode!, Write!, LockWrite!, Append!)
FileWriteEx(li_FileNum, "New Employees")
The following example reads a blob from the database and writes it to a file. The SQL SELECT statement assigns the picture data to the blob Emp_Id_Pic. Then FileOpen opens a file for writing in stream mode and FileWriteEx writes the blob to the file. You could use the Len function to test whether the blob was too big for a single FileWrite call:
integer li_FileNum
blob emp_id_pic
SELECTBLOB salary_hist INTO : emp_id_pic
FROM Employee WHERE Employee.Emp_Num = 100
USING Emp_tran;
li_FileNum = FileOpen("C:\EMPLOYEE\EMP_PICS.BMP", &
StreamMode!, Write!, Shared!, Replace!)
FileWriteEx(li_FileNum, emp_id_pic)
