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up vote 2 down vote favorite

I'm doing a program in Delphi, writing in all kinds of files, either text or executable:

var
  openfile: TextFile;
begin
      AssignFile(openfile, 'test.exe');
      Append(openfile);
      WriteLn(openfile,'[test]hi world[test]');
      CloseFile(openfile);
end;

How can I improve this?

share|improve this question
1  
There are other ways using native file handles, but the way you have done it is the recommended one. – GiantTree Feb 25 '15 at 16:57
1  
Although it might not be recommenced to write text to a file with a .EXE extension ,-) – Mawg Apr 13 '15 at 14:15
up vote 6 down vote accepted

Yes. I would add try..finally so that the file will be properly closed even in the case of exception (hopefully my remembrance of the syntax isn't too rusty):

var
  openfile: TextFile;
begin
      AssignFile(openfile, 'test.exe');
      Append(openfile);
      try
          WriteLn(openfile,'[test]hi world[test]');
      finally
          CloseFile(openfile);
      end;
end;

also, you say you want to write binary files as well as text files.. so don't use TextFile. The "modern" way would be to use TFileStream:

with TFileStream.Create('test.exe', fmOpenWrite) do
try
  Seek(0,soFromEnd);
  Write(...);
finally
  Free;
end;
share|improve this answer
up vote 2 down vote

Please note that AssignFile routines are very old fashioned. Consider using OOP approach using streams, like

var
  f: TFileStream;
begin
  f:=TFileStream.Create(FileName, fmCreate);
  try
    f.WriteBuffer(Pointer(SourceString)^, Length(SourceString));
  finally
    f.Free;
  end;
end;

(SourceString in this case should be AnsiString. It needs a little change for Unicode)

share|improve this answer
    
What's wrong with using TStringStream and copying from that? – Andrea Raimondi Sep 27 '16 at 14:05
    
TStringStream does not work directly with the file (not suitable if you work with large files) and you can't change just specific part of it - you have to load and save whole file. – smooty86 Sep 27 '16 at 20:00
    
I am not sure we are on the same page here. What I am saying is: to copy a string, why can't you use a TStringStream and then CopyFrom there. TStringStream allows you to seek and read specific strings, so it does precisely what you say it doesn't do. Or I am missing something. – Andrea Raimondi Sep 28 '16 at 6:49
    
This topic is "Write to files". TStringStream is a memory stream, you have to load whole file into memory, change it and save it = overwrite whole file. – smooty86 Sep 28 '16 at 7:05

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