FILE_OPEN

Syntax

FILE_OPEN ([#ch,] device [,{mode% | ChID}])

Location

BTool

FILE_OPEN is a function which will open any device (default data directory supported for files) for all kinds of tasks. If a channel number #ch is not supplied, FILE_OPEN will choose the channel number on its own by searching for the next free channel number and returning it.

FILE_OPEN returns the channel number if it was not specified or otherwise zero. In case of failure it will return a (negative) error code. If error -4 (‘out of range’) is returned when a channel number has not been supplied, this indicates that the channel table of a compiled job is full.

The third parameter can be either the open mode or the channel ID of an un-named pipe.

The open mode (default 0) is:

  • 0 (old exclusive) - open an existing file to read and write.

  • 1 (old shared) - open an existing file to read only.

  • 2 (new exclusive) - create a new file if it does not exist.

  • 3 (new overwrite) - create a new file, whether or not it exists.

  • 4 (dir open) - open a directory to read only.

If the third parameter is the channel ID of an open input pipe, then FILE_OPEN will create an output pipe linked to that channel.

Example

Count additional keywords:

100 ch1=FILE_OPEN(pipe_10000)
110 ch2=FILE_OPEN(pipe_,CHANID(#ch1))
120 EXTRAS#ch1
130 FOR count=1 TO 1E6
140   IF IO_PEND%(#ch2) THEN EXIT
150   INPUT#ch2,keyword$
160   AT 0,0: PRINT count
170 END FOR count
180 CLOSE#ch1,#ch2

CROSS-REFERENCE

FILE_OPEN combines OPEN, OPEN_IN, OPEN_NEW, OPEN_OVER, OPEN_DIR, FOPEN, FOP_IN, FOP_OVER, FOP_NEW, FOP_DIR, TTEOPEN and TCONNECT. See also CHANID and ERNUM.