Creating a Text File

Along with reading files, you will need to know how to create files. Here is a simple example that walks you through the basics of file creation.




 

// define constants

// Note: if a file exists, using forWriting will set

// the contents of the file to zero before writing to

// it. 

var forReading = 1, forWriting = 2, forAppending = 8;



 // Create FileSystemObject 

fs = new ActiveXObject( "Scripting.FileSystemObject" );



 // Create the text file 

fs.CreateTextFile( "firstfile.txt" );



 // Open the file for appending 

os = fs.GetFile( "firstfile.txt" );

os = os.OpenAsTextStream( forAppending, 0 );



 // Write two lines of text to the file 

os.write( "Hello World\r\n" );

os.write( "Goodbye World\r\n" );



 // Close the file 

os.Close();







var forReading = 1, forWriting = 2, forAppending = 8;
Standard file mode variables are created for easy reading of script.

fs = new ActiveXObject( "Scripting.FileSystemObject" );
In order to work with files we need to create a FileSystemObject.
Note: You can use CreateObject instead of using new ActiveXObject. However, a note from Microsoft technical staff indicated that using the latter involved less overhead for the system and should be considered the preferred method of instantiating objects.

fs.CreateTextFile( "firstfile.txt" );
To create a file, we will call the CreateTextFile method of the FileSystemObject that we just created.

os = fs.GetFile( "firstfile.txt" );
os = os.OpenAsTextStream( forAppending, 0 );

Now that the file has been created, we will create another object use to hold the specific file and the mode with which we intend to use the file.
The OpenAsTextStream method takes two parameters.

The first is the file mode, which can contain forReading, forWriting, and forAppending (1, 2, 8) respectively. The second parameter contains the format with which to use; TristateUseDefault, TristateTrue, TristateFalse (-2, -1, 0) respectively.
os.write( "Hello World\r\n" );
os.write( "Goodbye World\r\n" );

Two lines of text are written to the file by calling the write method.
Note: The use of \r\n places a return and a new line at the end of each line written to the file. Often, you will only see the \n which will work in most situations. Additionally, you can use the WriteLine method to automatically add the new line charactors to the end of each line.

os.Close();
Finally, we close the file stream. This will happen automatically when the script exits, but closing the file through code is good programming practice.
Copyright 1999 Daren Thiel - www.winscripter.com