Stream.Seek Method (System.IO)

Seek Method

Switch on low bandwidth view

Collapse All

Language Filter

This page is specific to

Microsoft Visual Studio 2008/.NET Framework 3.5

Other versions are also available for the following:

.NET Framework Class Library

Stream..::.Seek Method

When overridden in a derived class, sets the position within the current stream.

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

Syntax

Visual Basic (Declaration)

Public MustOverride Function Seek ( _
    offset As Long, _
    origin As SeekOrigin _
) As Long

Visual Basic (Usage)

Dim instance As Stream
Dim offset As Long
Dim origin As SeekOrigin
Dim returnValue As Long

returnValue = instance.Seek(offset, origin)

public abstract long Seek(
    long offset,
    SeekOrigin origin
)

Visual C++

public:
virtual long long Seek(
    long long offset, 
    SeekOrigin origin
) abstract

JScript

public abstract function Seek(
    offset : long, 
    origin : SeekOrigin
) : long

Parameters

offset: Type: System..::.Int64
A byte offset relative to the origin parameter.

origin: Type: System.IO..::.SeekOrigin
A value of type SeekOrigin indicating the reference point used to obtain the new position.

Return Value

Type: System..::.Int64
The new position within the current stream.

Exceptions

Exception	Condition
IOException	An I/O error occurs.
NotSupportedException	The stream does not support seeking, such as if the stream is constructed from a pipe or console output.
ObjectDisposedException	Methods were called after the stream was closed.

Remarks

For an example of creating a file and writing text to a file, see How to: Write Text to a File. For an example of reading text from a file, see How to: Read Text from a File. For an example of reading from and writing to a binary file, see How to: Read and Write to a Newly Created Data File.

Use the CanSeek property to determine whether the current instance supports seeking.

If offset is negative, the new position is required to precede the position specified by origin by the number of bytes specified by offset. If offset is zero (0), the new position is required to be the position specified by origin. If offset is positive, the new position is required to follow the position specified by origin by the number of bytes specified by offset.

Classes derived from Stream that support seeking must override this method to provide the functionality described above.

Seeking to any location beyond the length of the stream is supported.

Platforms

Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP SP2, Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows XP Starter Edition, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2000 SP4, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows 98, Windows CE, Windows Mobile for Smartphone, Windows Mobile for Pocket PC, Xbox 360, Zune

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

Version Information

.NET Framework

Supported in: 3.5, 3.0, 2.0, 1.1, 1.0

.NET Compact Framework

Supported in: 3.5, 2.0, 1.0

XNA Framework

Supported in: 3.0, 2.0, 1.0

Reference

Stream Class

Stream 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