Files

The File class is used for working with file objects in Ruby.

Create a New File

To create a new File object, use the .new() method and pass in:

• A string name for the new file.
• A mode to indicate which operations can be done to the file.

Common modes include the following:

This new File object can be assigned to its own variable, like in the example below:

example_file = File.new("exampleFile.txt", "w")

puts example_file
# Output: #<File:0x00007fab5113b790>

Open and Close a File

To open a file, use the .open() method:

File.new("exampleFile.txt", "w")

File.open("exampleFile.txt", "r")

To close the file, use the .close method:

example_file.close

When using .open() with a do...end block, the file will .close at the end.

File.open("exampleFile.txt", "w+") do |f|
  ...
end

Read and Write to a File

Since it’s related to the IO class, the File class can read and write files. It’s important to mention that the file must be opened before reading or writing can start. It must also be closed afterward.

To just write to a file, use the w mode:

example_file = File.open("exampleFile.txt", "w")

File.write("exampleFile.txt", "This is some text.")

example_file.close

To just read an (opened) file, use the r mode:

example_file = File.open("exampleFile.txt", "r")

puts example_file.read
# Output: This is some text.

example_file.close