FileStream.Position Property (System.IO)

.NET Framework Class Library

FileStream.Position Property

Gets or sets the current position of this stream.

Namespace: System.IO
Assembly: mscorlib (in mscorlib.dll)

Syntax

Visual Basic (Declaration)

Public Overrides Property Position As Long

Visual Basic (Usage)

Dim instance As FileStream
Dim value As Long

value = instance.Position

instance.Position = value

public override long Position { get; set; }

C++

public:
virtual property long long Position {
    long long get () override;
    void set (long long value) override;
}

/** @property */
public long get_Position ()

/** @property */
public void set_Position (long value)

JScript

public override function get Position () : long

public override function set Position (value : long)

Property Value

The current position of this stream.

Exceptions

Exception type	Condition
NotSupportedException	The stream does not support seeking.
IOException	An I/O error occurs. - or - The position was set to a very large value beyond the end of the stream in Windows 98 or earlier.
ArgumentOutOfRangeException	Attempted to set the position to a negative value.
EndOfStreamException	Attempted seeking past the end of a stream that does not support this.

Remarks

Seeking to any location beyond the length of the stream is supported. When you seek beyond the length of the file, the file size grows. In Microsoft Windows NT and newer, any data added to the end of the file is set to zero. In Microsoft Windows 98 or earlier, any data added to the end of the file is not set to zero, which means that previously deleted data is visible to the stream. Setting the position of the stream to a large value beyond the end of the stream in Windows 98 or earlier may result in an exception being raised.

The following table lists examples of other typical or related I/O tasks.

To do this...	See the example in this topic...
Create a text file.	How to: Write Text to a File
Write to a text file.	How to: Write Text to a File
Read from a text file.	How to: Read Text from a File
Append text to a file.	How to: Open and Append to a Log File File.AppendText FileInfo.AppendText
Rename or move a file.	File.Move FileInfo.MoveTo
Copy a file.	File.Copy FileInfo.CopyTo
Get the size of a directory.	FileInfo.Length
Get the attributes of a file.	File.GetAttributes
Set the attributes of a file.	File.SetAttributes
Create a subdirectory.	CreateSubdirectory
Read from a binary file.	How to: Read and Write to a Newly Created Data File
Write to a binary file.	How to: Read and Write to a Newly Created Data File
See the files in a directory.	Name
Sort files in a directory by size.	GetFileSystemInfos

Example

The following example uses the Length and Position properties to check for an end-of-file condition.

Visual Basic

If s.Length = s.Position Then
    Console.WriteLine("End of file has been reached.")
End If

if( s.Length==s.Position )
{
   Console.WriteLine("End of file has been reached.");
}

C++

if ( s->Length == s->Position )
{
   Console::WriteLine( "End of file has been reached." );
}

if (s.get_Length() == s.get_Position()) {
    Console.WriteLine("End of file has been reached.");
}

JScript

if( s.Length==s.Position )
    Console.WriteLine("End of file has been reached.");

Platforms

Windows 98, Windows 2000 SP4, Windows CE, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows Mobile for Pocket PC, Windows Mobile for Smartphone, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows XP SP2, Windows XP Starter Edition

The .NET Framework does not support all versions of every platform. For a list of the supported versions, see System Requirements.

Version Information

.NET Framework

Supported in: 2.0, 1.1, 1.0

.NET Compact Framework

Supported in: 2.0, 1.0

Reference

FileStream Class
FileStream Members
System.IO Namespace

Other Resources

File and Stream I/O
How to: Read Text from a File
How to: Write Text to a File