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Paul Squires edited this page Oct 19, 2026 · 2 revisions

Home › File I/O Functions › Output

Output

Opens a text file for writing with Open, creating it or emptying it first.

Syntax

Open filename for Output [Encoding encoding_type] [Lock lock_type] as [#]filenum

Parameters

  • filename
  • encoding_type
  • lock_type
  • filenum

Description

A file mode used with Open to open a text file for writing.

This mode is used to write text with Print #, or comma separated values with Write #.

Text files can't be simultaneously read and written in FreeBASIC, so if both functions are required on the same file, it must be opened twice.

filename must be a string expression resulting in a legal file name in the target OS, without wildcards. The file will be sought for in the present directory, unless the filename contains a path . If the file does not exist, it is created. The pointer is set at the first character of the file.

Encoding_type indicates the Unicode Encoding of the file, so characters are correctly read. If omitted, "ascii" encoding is defaulted. Only little endian character encodings are supported at the moment.

Lock_type indicates the way the file is locked for other processes, it is one of:

filenum Is a valid FreeBASIC file number (in the range 1..255) not being used for any other file presently open. The file number identifies the file for the rest of file operations. A free file number can be found using the FreeFile function.

Remarks

Differences from QB

See also

Examples

Dim ff As UByte

Dim randomvar As Integer

Dim name_str As String

Dim age_ubyte As UByte

ff = FreeFile

Input "What is your name? ",name_str

Input "What is your age? ",age_ubyte

Open "testfile" For Output As #ff

Write #ff, Int(Rnd(0)*42),name_str,age_ubyte

Close #ff

randomvar=0

name_str=""

age_ubyte=0

Open "testfile" For Input As #ff

Input #ff, randomvar,name_str,age_ubyte

Close #ff

Print "Random Number was: ", randomvar

Print "Your name is: " + name_str

Print "Your age is: " + Str(age_ubyte)

'File outputted by this sample will look like this,

'minus the comment of course:

'23,"Your Name",19

Category: File I/O Functions
Kind: keyword


Reproduced from the FreeBASIC Wiki Manual under the GNU Free Documentation License 1.3 — with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts and no Back-Cover Texts. Copyright © the FreeBASIC project and wiki contributors. See License.

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