FileSpec Class

Create a file specification, which provides a useful framework for managing file names and paths.

Inheritance Hierarchy

Object
FileSpec
DbFileSpec

Namespace: VO
Assembly: VOSystemClasses (in VOSystemClasses.dll) Version: 2.21

Syntax

Copy

 CLASS FileSpec

public class FileSpec

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The FileSpec type exposes the following members.

Constructors

	Name	Description
	FileSpec	Construct a file specification.

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Properties

	Name	Description
	Attributes	One or more of the following characters concatenated into a string, indicating the attributes of the file represented by this file specification:
	DateChanged	A date value denoting when the file was created or last changed. If the file is not found, NULL_DATE is returned.
	Drive	A string representing the drive defined to this file specification.
	ErrInfo	Return the error object from the last Copy() or Move() operation.
	Extension	A string representing the extension defined to this file specification.
	FileName	A string representing the file name defined to this file specification.
	FullPath	A string representing the full path name defined to this file specification.
	Path	A string representing the path defined to this file specification.
	Size	A numeric value representing the size, in bytes, of the file represented by this file specification.
	TimeChanged	A string indicating the time when the file was created or last changed.

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Methods

	Name	Description
	AppendToPath	Append a subdirectory to the end of this file specification's path.
	Copy	Make a copy of the file represented by this file specification.
	Delete	Delete the file represented by this file specification.
	Error	Provide a method for handling error conditions raised during FileSpec processing. This is an event handler: it is automatically called by other methods; the developer does not normally need to call the error method, but might want to replace or amend it.
	Find	Search the disk for the file represented by this file specification, indicate if it exists, and if so, store its full path information in this file specification for future reference.
	Move	Move the file represented by this file specification to a new location.
	PathUp	Remove the last subdirectory from the end of this file specification's path.
	Rename	Rename the file represented by this file specification.

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Remarks

A file specification is intended as a way of storing and managing name- and path-related information for a file. It provides some methods for copying, moving, deleting and renaming files, as well as access methods for retrieving information about the file. If the path is not specified using the assign methods provided by the FileSpec class, it is obtained by the SetDefault() and SetPath() functions. This class allows you to manage this data for all different types of files in a common way. Because of this, it does not provide any methods for processing a file, such as reading and writing it, as such methods would depend on the type of file it is. For example, .DBF files can be processed with the DBServer object; other files can be processed with either functions or customized FileSpec subclasses that have been customized for handling different types of files.

Examples

File specifications are often used as arguments to DBServer objects and methods. For example, to copy selected records from one file to another:

Copy

 1// Source file
 2oFSSource := FileSpec{"c:\data\customer"}
 3// For the target file, use path of source file
 4oFSTarget := FileSpec{oFSSource:FullPath}
 5// Change file name for target file
 6oFSTarget:FileName := "nycust"
 7// Open source file in server object
 8oDBSource := DBServer{oFSSource}
 9// Copy records to target file
10oDBSource:CopyDB(oFSTarget,,{||STATE="NY"})

A FileSpec object is also a convenient way to find the current directory and then search in subdirectories according to a logical structure:

Copy

1oFileSpec := FileSpec{}
2oFileSpec:Path := CurDir()
3oFileSpec:AppendToPath("data")
4oFileSpec:FileName := "custdata"
5oDB := DBServer{oFileSpec}

Reference

VO Namespace