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.NET Framework 2.0
System.IO
FileStream Class
FileStream Methods
 Seek Method

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This page is specific to
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005/.NET Framework 2.0

Other versions are also available for the following:
.NET Framework Class Library
FileStream.Seek Method

Sets the current position of this stream to the given value.

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

Visual Basic (Declaration)
Public Overrides Function Seek ( _
    offset As Long, _
    origin As SeekOrigin _
) As Long
Visual Basic (Usage)
Dim instance As FileStream
Dim offset As Long
Dim origin As SeekOrigin
Dim returnValue As Long

returnValue = instance.Seek(offset, origin)
C#
public override long Seek (
    long offset,
    SeekOrigin origin
)
C++
public:
virtual long long Seek (
    long long offset, 
    SeekOrigin origin
) override
J#
public long Seek (
    long offset, 
    SeekOrigin origin
)
JScript
public override function Seek (
    offset : long, 
    origin : SeekOrigin
) : long

Parameters

offset

The point relative to origin from which to begin seeking.

origin

Specifies the beginning, the end, or the current position as a reference point for origin, using a value of type SeekOrigin.

Return Value

The new position in the stream.
Exception typeCondition

IOException

An I/O error occurs.

NotSupportedException

The stream does not support seeking, such as if the FileStream is constructed from a pipe or console output.

ArgumentException

Attempted seeking before the beginning of the stream.

ObjectDisposedException

Methods were called after the stream was closed.

This method overrides Seek.

NoteNote

Use the CanSeek property to determine whether the current instance supports seeking. For additional information, see CanSeek.

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 greater, 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.

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

The following code example shows how to write data to a file, byte by byte, and then verify that the data was written correctly.

Visual Basic
Imports Microsoft.VisualBasic
Imports System
Imports System.IO
Imports System.Text

Class FStream

    Shared Sub Main()

        Const fileName As String = "Test#@@#.dat"

        ' Create random data to write to the file.
        Dim dataArray(100000) As Byte
        Dim randomGenerator As New Random()
        randomGenerator.NextBytes(dataArray)

        Dim fileStream As FileStream = _
            new FileStream(fileName, FileMode.Create)
        Try

            ' Write the data to the file, byte by byte.
            For i As Integer = 0 To dataArray.Length - 1
                fileStream.WriteByte(dataArray(i))
            Next i

            ' Set the stream position to the beginning of the stream.
            fileStream.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin)

            ' Read and verify the data.
            For i As Integer = 0 To _
                CType(fileStream.Length, Integer) - 1

                If dataArray(i) <> fileStream.ReadByte() Then
                    Console.WriteLine("Error writing data.")
                    Return
                End If
            Next i
            Console.WriteLine("The data was written to {0} " & _
                "and verified.", fileStream.Name)
        Finally
            fileStream.Close()
        End Try
    
    End Sub
End Class
C#
using System;
using System.IO;

class FStream
{
    static void Main()
    {
        const string fileName = "Test#@@#.dat";

        // Create random data to write to the file.
        byte[] dataArray = new byte[100000];
        new Random().NextBytes(dataArray);

        using(FileStream  
            fileStream = new FileStream(fileName, FileMode.Create))
        {
            // Write the data to the file, byte by byte.
            for(int i = 0; i < dataArray.Length; i++)
            {
                fileStream.WriteByte(dataArray[i]);
            }

            // Set the stream position to the beginning of the file.
            fileStream.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin);

            // Read and verify the data.
            for(int i = 0; i < fileStream.Length; i++)
            {
                if(dataArray[i] != fileStream.ReadByte())
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("Error writing data.");
                    return;
                }
            }
            Console.WriteLine("The data was written to {0} " +
                "and verified.", fileStream.Name);
        }
    }
}
C++
using namespace System;
using namespace System::IO;
int main()
{
   String^ fileName =  "Test@##@.dat";
   
   // Create random data to write to the file.
   array<Byte>^dataArray = gcnew array<Byte>(100000);
   (gcnew Random)->NextBytes( dataArray );
   FileStream^ fileStream = gcnew FileStream( fileName,FileMode::Create );
   try
   {
      
      // Write the data to the file, byte by byte.
      for ( int i = 0; i < dataArray->Length; i++ )
      {
         fileStream->WriteByte( dataArray[ i ] );

      }
      
      // Set the stream position to the beginning of the file.
      fileStream->Seek( 0, SeekOrigin::Begin );
      
      // Read and verify the data.
      for ( int i = 0; i < fileStream->Length; i++ )
      {
         if ( dataArray[ i ] != fileStream->ReadByte() )
         {
            Console::WriteLine( "Error writing data." );
            return  -1;
         }

      }
      Console::WriteLine( "The data was written to {0} "
      "and verified.", fileStream->Name );
   }
   finally
   {
      fileStream->Close();
   }

}

J#
import System.*;
import System.IO.*;

class FStream
{   
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        final String fileName = "Test#@@#.dat";

        // Create random data to write to the file.
        ubyte dataArray[] = new ubyte[100000];
        new Random().NextBytes(dataArray);        

        FileStream fileStream = new FileStream(fileName, FileMode.Create);
        try {
            // Write the data to the file, byte by byte.
            for(int i=0;i < dataArray.length;i++) {
                fileStream.WriteByte(dataArray[i]);
            } 

            // Set the stream position to the beginning of the file.
            fileStream.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin);

            // Read and verify the data.
            for(int i=0;i < fileStream.get_Length();i++) {
                if ( dataArray[i] != fileStream.ReadByte()  ) {
                    Console.WriteLine("Error writing data.");
                    return;
                }
            } 
            Console.WriteLine("The data was written to {0} "
                + "and verified.", fileStream.get_Name());
        }
        finally {
            fileStream.Dispose();
        }        
    } //main
} //FStream

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.

.NET Framework

Supported in: 2.0, 1.1, 1.0

.NET Compact Framework

Supported in: 2.0, 1.0
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