Creating a text file from livecode

[monki]

I know it's possible to read from, and write to, existing text files, but is it possible to take text from a field and use it to create a new text file? If not, could a standalone stack copy an existing text file to the save location and write to that? Would that be the way to create a "new" file?

[Simon]

Hi monki,
Easy peasy!
put fld "myText" into url "file:myNewFile.txt"
Now that will put it in the current default directory.

Simon

[monki]

I never would've thought of "URL". Saw it in the user doc, but thought it only pertained to servers Anyway, that got it working, thanks

[FourthWorld]

In addition to the URL syntax, you can also work with files using open, write/read, and close, e.g.:

Code: Select all

on SaveFile pData, pFile
   open file pFile for write
   if the result is not empty then
       answer "Couldn't create file "&quote& pFile &quote& "(" & sysError() &")"
       exit to top
   end if
   write pData to file pFile
   close file pFile
end SaveFile

[monki]

So, opening, and writing to, a non-existing text file will create a new file?
I actually tried the open, write, close thing for creating files first and it didn't work. Maybe I got some of the syntax wrong.

[FourthWorld]

See the error handling block in the example I posted. Many times the issue is an invalid file path, or incorrect permissions for the destination folder. Checking the result will let you know if something went wrong, and using sysError() will provide the OS code related to the issue.