Ruby File I/O

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Ruby File I/O

Ruby provides a way to handle file operations. This feature allows us to interact with the files in the system. The I/O has a subclass as File class that allows us to read and write files using Ruby.

I/O modes

  • "r": It is the default mode that starts in the beginning of the file.
  • "r+": In this mode both reading and writing operations are done
  • "w": In this mode the user can perform only the writing operation, this mode either creates a new file or truncates an existing file
  • "w+": In this mode both reading and writing operations can be done. Also, this mode either creates a new file or truncates an existing file
  • "a": In this mode we can only write into the file, Also if the file does not exist a new file will be created else it will append the input at the end of the file
  • "A+": In this mode both read/write operations can be done into the file, Also if the file does not exist a new file will be created else it will append the input at the end of the file
     

Ruby opening a file

There are two ways of opening a file in ruby
new

  • File.new method: Using this method we can create a new file.open
  • File.open method: Using this method an object is created, and the file is assigned to the object

Note: File.open method can be associated with a block.
 

Difference between both the methods is that File.open method can be associated with a block while File.new method can't.

f = File.new("fileName.rb")

Or,

File.open("fileName.rb", "mode") do |f|

Ruby reading a file

There are three different methods to read a file.

To return a single line,getsis used.

Example:

file = File.open("filename.txt", "r")
contents = file.read
puts contents

To return the whole file after the current position,readis used.

Example:

file = File.open("filename.txt", "r")
contents = file.read
puts contents

To return file as an array of lines,readlinesis used.

Example:

File.readlines("filename.txt").each_with_index do |line, line_num|
  puts "#{line_num}: #{line}"
end

Ruby renaming and deleting a file

To rename a file use the rename command.

To rename a file

File.rename("olderName.txt", "newName.txt")

To delete a file we can use the delete command.

To delete a file

File.delete("filename.txt")