Using statement with file streams in C Sharp (C#) - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Using statement with file streams

📖 Scenario: You want to read the contents of a text file safely and correctly in C#. Using the using statement helps you open the file, read it, and automatically close it when done.

🎯 Goal: Build a simple program that reads all lines from a file called example.txt using a using statement and prints the content to the console.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a string variable filePath with the value "example.txt".

Create a using statement to open a StreamReader for filePath.

Inside the using block, read all lines from the file using ReadToEnd().

Print the file content to the console.

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Reading files safely is common in many applications like reading configuration, logs, or user data.

💼 Career

Understanding file streams and resource management is essential for software developers working with file input/output.

1

Create the file path variable

Create a string variable called filePath and set it to "example.txt".

C Sharp (C#)

string filePath = "example.txt";  // Your code here

Need a hint?

Use string filePath = "example.txt"; to store the file name.

2

Add a using statement to open the file

Add a using statement that creates a StreamReader named reader to open the file at filePath.

C Sharp (C#)

using System;
using System.IO;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        string filePath = "example.txt";
        using (StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(filePath))
        {
            // Your code here
        }
    }
}

Need a hint?

Use using (StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(filePath)) to open the file safely.

3

Read the file content inside the using block

Inside the using block, create a string variable called content and set it to reader.ReadToEnd() to read the whole file content.

C Sharp (C#)

using System;
using System.IO;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        string filePath = "example.txt";
        using (StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(filePath))
        {
            string content = reader.ReadToEnd();  // Your code here
        }
    }
}

Need a hint?

Use string content = reader.ReadToEnd(); to read all text from the file.

4

Print the file content

Add a Console.WriteLine(content); statement after reading the file content inside the using block to display the text.

C Sharp (C#)

using System;
using System.IO;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        string filePath = "example.txt";
        using (StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(filePath))
        {
            string content = reader.ReadToEnd();
            // Your code here
        }
    }
}

Need a hint?

Use Console.WriteLine(content); to print the file content.