hb_MemoRead()

Return the text file’s contents as a character string

Syntax

      HB_MEMOREAD( <cFileName> ) --> cString

Arguments

<cFileName> is the filename to read from disk. It must include the file extension. If file to be read lives in another directory, you must include the path.

Returns

Returns the contents of a text file as a character string.

If <cFileName> cannot be found or read HB_MEMOREAD returns an empty string (“”).

Description

HB_MEMOREAD() is a function that reads the content of a text file (till now) from disk (floppy, HD, CD-ROM, etc.) into a memory string. In that way you can manipulate as any character string or assigned to a memo field to be saved in a database.

HB_MEMOREAD() function is used together with MEMOEDIT() and HB_MEMOWRIT() to get from disk text from several sources that would be edited, searched, replaced, displayed, etc.

It is used to import data from other sources to our database.

Note: HB_MEMOREAD() does not use the settings SET DEFAULT or SET PATH to search for <cFileName>. It searches for <cFileName> in the current directory. If the file is not found, then HB_MEMOREAD() searches in the DOS path.

Over a network, HB_MEMOREAD() attempts to open <cFileName> in read-only mode and shared. If the file is used in mode exclusive by another process, the function will returns a null string (“”).

HB_MEMOREAD() vs MEMOREAD(): HB_MEMOREAD() is identical to MEMOREAD() except it won’t truncate the last byte (on non-UNIX compatible systems) if it’s a EOF char.

Examples

      *  This example uses HB_MEMOREAD() to assign the contents of a text
      *  file to a character variable for later search

         cFile   := "account.prg"
         cString := HB_MEMOREAD( cFile )
         cCopyright := "Melina"

         IF At( "Melina", cString ) == 0               // check for copyright
            HB_MEMOWRIT( cFile, cCopyright + cString ) // if not, add it!
         ENDIF

Compliance

Clipper

Platforms

All (64K)

Files

Library is rtl

Seealso

MEMOEDIT(), HB_MEMOWRIT(), REPLACE, MEMOREAD()