This section explains how to open a text file for reading, writing or appending using vbscript. A file can be opened using the 'OpenTextFile' function of the file system object. This function will return a 'TextStreamObject' which can be used to read/write data from/into the file. The syntax of the 'OpenTextFile' function is given below

Syntax: OpenTextFile(filename [, iomode[, create[, format]]])

The argument 'filename' is a mandatory argument. We need to give the filename along with the complete path, of the file to be opened.

The argument 'iomode' is an optional argument. It specifies the mode in which the file to be opened. This is an integer argument that accepts 1, 2 or 8. The following table shows the meaning of each values. The default value is 1 (READ)

The argument 'create' is also an optional boolean argument. It can take either 'True' or 'False'. 'True' menas if the specified file doesn't exists, a new file with that name will be created. 'False' means if the specified file is not there vbscript will return an error. The hexadecimal error code is '800A0035'. The default value is 'False'.

The argument 'format' is an integer argument. It can accept -1, 0 or -2. The following table shows the meaning of each value. The default value is -2 (Default System Setting)

Dim ObjFso
Dim StrFileName
Dim ObjFile

StrFileName = "C:\TestFile.txt"
Set ObjFso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

If ObjFso.FileExists(StrFileName) Then
   Set ObjFile = ObjFso.OpenTextFile (StrFileName)
   WScript.Echo("The Content of the file is: " & ObjFile.ReadAll)
   ObjFile.Close
Else
   WScript.Echo("The specified file is not found!!")
End If

Dim ObjFso
Dim StrFileName
Dim ObjFile

StrFileName = "C:\TestFile.txt"
Set ObjFso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

'Opening the file
Set ObjFile = ObjFso.OpenTextFile (StrFileName, 2, True)

'Writing some data into the file
ObjFile.WriteLine("This is some sample data.")

'Closing the file
ObjFile.Close

Dim ObjFso
Dim StrFileName
Dim ObjFile

StrFileName = "C:\TestFile.txt"
Set ObjFso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

'Opening the file
Set ObjFile = ObjFso.OpenTextFile (StrFileName, 8, True)

'Writing some data into the file
ObjFile.WriteLine("This is some sample data.")

'Closing the file
ObjFile.Close

Dim ObjFso
Dim StrFileName
Dim ObjFile

StrFileName = "C:\TestFile.txt"
Set ObjFso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

'Opening the file
Set ObjFile = ObjFso.OpenTextFile (StrFileName, 8, True, -1)

'Writing some data into the file
ObjFile.WriteLine("This is some sample data.")

'Closing the file
ObjFile.Close