How best to read a File into List

Question

I am using a list to limit the file size since the target is limited in disk and ram. This is what I am doing now but is there a more efficient way?

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Answer 1

//this is only good in .NET 4
//read your file:
List<string> ReadFile = File.ReadAllLines(@"C:\TEMP\FILE.TXT").ToList();

//manipulate data here
foreach(string line in ReadFile)
{
    //do something here
}

//write back to your file:
File.WriteAllLines(@"C:\TEMP\FILE2.TXT", ReadFile);

Answer 2

var logFile = File.ReadAllLines(LOG_PATH);
var logList = new List<string>(logFile);

Since logFile is an array, you can pass it to the List<T> constructor. This eliminates unnecessary overhead when iterating over the array, or using other IO classes.

Actual constructor implementation:

public List(IEnumerable<T> collection)
{
        ...
        ICollection<T> c = collection as ICollection<T>;
        if( c != null) {
            int count = c.Count;
            if (count == 0)
            {
                _items = _emptyArray;
            }
            else {
                _items = new T[count];
                c.CopyTo(_items, 0);
                _size = count;
            }
        }   
        ...
} 

Answer 3

List<string> lines = new List<string>();
 using (var sr = new StreamReader("file.txt"))
 {
      while (sr.Peek() >= 0)
          lines.Add(sr.ReadLine());
 }

i would suggest this... of Groo's answer.

Answer 4

You can simple read this way .

List<string> lines = System.IO.File.ReadLines(completePath).ToList();