How to resolve the algorithm Read a specific line from a file step by step in the C# programming language

Published on 12 May 2024 09:40 PM

How to resolve the algorithm Read a specific line from a file step by step in the C# programming language

Table of Contents

Problem Statement

Some languages have special semantics for obtaining a known line number from a file.

Demonstrate how to obtain the contents of a specific line within a file. For the purpose of this task demonstrate how the contents of the seventh line of a file can be obtained,   and store it in a variable or in memory   (for potential future use within the program if the code were to become embedded). If the file does not contain seven lines,   or the seventh line is empty,   or too big to be retrieved,   output an appropriate message. If no special semantics are available for obtaining the required line,   it is permissible to read line by line. Note that empty lines are considered and should still be counted. Also note that for functional languages or languages without variables or storage,   it is permissible to output the extracted data to standard output.

Let's start with the solution:

Step by Step solution about How to resolve the algorithm Read a specific line from a file step by step in the C# programming language

The provided C# code defines a program that reads a specified line from a text file and displays it on the console. Here's a breakdown of the code:

  1. Namespace and Class:

    • The code is encapsulated within a namespace called GetLine.
    • Class Program is defined as the entry point for the program.
  2. Main Method:

    • Main method is the starting point of the program. It takes two arguments from the command line:
      • args[0]: The path to the text file.
      • args[1]: The line number to retrieve from the file.
    • It then calls the GetLine method to retrieve the specified line.
  3. GetLine Method:

    • GetLine method is a private method that takes two parameters:
      • path: The path to the text file.
      • line: The line number to retrieve.
    • It uses a StreamReader to read the text file line by line.
    • It loops through the file, incrementing a counter i with each line read.
    • When i equals the specified line number, it reads and returns that line.
    • If it reaches the end of the file without finding the specified line, it returns an error message indicating that the line number is greater than the number of lines in the file.
    • It handles exceptions related to file access and out of memory errors, returning appropriate error messages.
    • If any unforeseen errors occur, it throws an exception with a generic error message.
  4. Usage:

    • To use the program, you need to pass the path to the text file and the line number you want to retrieve as command-line arguments when running the program.
    • For example, if your text file is named sample.txt and you want to retrieve line number 5, you would run the program as follows:
    GetLine sample.txt 5

Source code in the csharp programming language

using System;
using System.IO;

namespace GetLine
{
    internal class Program
    {
        private static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(GetLine(args[0], uint.Parse(args[1])));
        }

        private static string GetLine(string path, uint line)
        {
            using (var reader = new StreamReader(path))
            {
                try
                {
                    for (uint i = 0; i <= line; i++)
                    {
                        if (reader.EndOfStream)
                            return string.Format("There {1} less than {0} line{2} in the file.", line,
                                                 ((line == 1) ? "is" : "are"), ((line == 1) ? "" : "s"));

                        if (i == line)
                            return reader.ReadLine();

                        reader.ReadLine();
                    }
                }
                catch (IOException ex)
                {
                    return ex.Message;
                }
                catch (OutOfMemoryException ex)
                {
                    return ex.Message;
                }
            }

            throw new Exception("Something bad happened.");
        }
    }
}

  

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