_READFILE$

The _READFILE$ function returns the complete contents of a file in a single string, but without the usual overhead. It does OPEN, GET and CLOSE the file in one run.

Syntax

content$ = _READFILE$(fileSpec$)

Parameters

• content$ is the entire file contents returned as STRING. Maybe empty, if the file specified was an empty file, or if the program is continued from an file related ERROR.
• fileSpec$ is the name of the file to read as literal or variable STRING, if required inclusive a full or relative path.

Description

• Sometimes it's required or at least useful to have the whole contents of a file in a single string for further processing, e.g. to use INSTR on it or similar task.
• In earlier versions of QB64(PE) you had to implement that loading process manually all the time or create a reusable custom FUNCTION for it.
• Now _READFILE will simplify this, it's mainly a convenience function to wrap the following code sequence in one handy function:

fh = FREEFILE OPEN fileSpec$ FOR BINARY AS #fh content$ = SPACE$(LOF(fh)) GET #fh, , content$ CLOSE #fh

Availability

• 

  none

• 

  v3.12.0

• 
• 

  yes

• 

  yes

• 

  yes

Examples

Example

Showing how the Crc-32 checksum can detect differences in two strings.

See also

• _DEFLATE$, _INFLATE$
• _ADLER32, _MD5$

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