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:

Program FileTruncate;

uses
  SysUtils;

const
  filename = 'test';
  position = 7;

var
  myfile: text;
  line: string;
  counter: integer;

begin
  if not FileExists(filename) then
  begin
    writeln('Error: File does not exist.');
    exit;
  end;

  Assign(myfile, filename);
  Reset(myfile);
  counter := 0;
  Repeat 
    if eof(myfile) then
    begin
      writeln('Error: The file "', filename, '" is too short. Cannot read line ', position);
      Close(myfile);
      exit;
    end;
    inc(counter);
    readln(myfile);
  until counter = position - 1;
  readln(myfile, line);
  Close(myfile);
  writeln(line);
end.