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How to Read and Write the Files in Golang?

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Golang offers a vast inbuilt library that can be used to perform read and write operations on files. In order to read from files on the local system, the io/ioutil module is put to use. The io/ioutil module is also used to write content to the file. 
The fmt module implements formatted I/O with functions to read input from the stdin and print output to the stdout. The log module implements simple logging package. It defines a type, Logger, with methods for formatting the output. The os module provides the ability to access native operating-system features. The bufio module implements buffered I/O which helps to improve the CPU performance.
 

  • os.Create() : The os.Create() method is used to creates a file with the desired name. If a file with the same name already exists, then the create function truncates the file.
  • ioutil.ReadFile() : The ioutil.ReadFile() method takes the path to the file to be read as it’s the only parameter. This method returns either the data of the file or an error.
  • ioutil.WriteFile() : The ioutil.WriteFile() is used to write data to a file. The WriteFile() method takes in 3 different parameters, the first is the location of the file we wish to write to, the second is the data object, and the third is the FileMode, which represents the file’s mode and permission bits.
  • log.Fatalf : Fatalf will cause the program to terminate after printing the log message. It is equivalent to Printf() followed by a call to os.Exit(1).
  • log.Panicf : Panic is just like an exception that may arise at runtime. Panicln is equivalent to Println() followed by a call to panic(). The argument passed to panic() will be printed when the program terminates.
  • bufio.NewReader(os.Stdin) : This method returns a new Reader whose buffer has the default size(4096 bytes).
  • inputReader.ReadString(‘\n’) : This method is used to read user input from stdin and reads until the first occurrence of delimiter in the input, returning a string containing the data up to and including the delimiter. If an error is encountered before finding a delimiter, it returns the data read before the error and the error itself.

Example 1: Use the offline compiler for better results. Save the file with .go extension. Use the command below command to execute the program.
 

go run filename.go

 

C




// Golang program to read and write the files
package main
 
// importing the packages
import (
    "fmt"
    "io/ioutil"
    "log"
    "os"
)
 
func CreateFile() {
 
    // fmt package implements formatted
    // I/O and has functions like Printf
    // and Scanf
    fmt.Printf("Writing to a file in Go lang\n")
     
    // in case an error is thrown it is received
    // by the err variable and Fatalf method of
    // log prints the error message and stops
    // program execution
    file, err := os.Create("test.txt")
     
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatalf("failed creating file: %s", err)
    }
     
    // Defer is used for purposes of cleanup like
    // closing a running file after the file has
    // been written and main //function has
    // completed execution
    defer file.Close()
     
    // len variable captures the length
    // of the string written to the file.
    len, err := file.WriteString("Welcome to GeeksforGeeks."+
            " This program demonstrates reading and writing"+
                         " operations to a file in Go lang.")
 
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatalf("failed writing to file: %s", err)
    }
 
    // Name() method returns the name of the
    // file as presented to Create() method.
    fmt.Printf("\nFile Name: %s", file.Name())
    fmt.Printf("\nLength: %d bytes", len)
}
 
func ReadFile() {
 
    fmt.Printf("\n\nReading a file in Go lang\n")
    fileName := "test.txt"
     
    // The ioutil package contains inbuilt
    // methods like ReadFile that reads the
    // filename and returns the contents.
    data, err := ioutil.ReadFile("test.txt")
    if err != nil {
        log.Panicf("failed reading data from file: %s", err)
    }
    fmt.Printf("\nFile Name: %s", fileName)
    fmt.Printf("\nSize: %d bytes", len(data))
    fmt.Printf("\nData: %s", data)
 
}
 
// main function
func main() {
 
    CreateFile()
    ReadFile()
}


Output:
 

read write files in Golang

Example 2: Golang Program code that accepts user input to read and write the files.
 

C




// Golang program to read and write the files
package main
 
// importing the requires packages
import (
    "bufio"
    "fmt"
    "io/ioutil"
    "log"
    "os"
)
 
func CreateFile(filename, text string) {
 
    // fmt package implements formatted I/O and
    // contains inbuilt methods like Printf
    // and Scanf
    fmt.Printf("Writing to a file in Go lang\n")
     
    // Creating the file using Create() method
    // with user inputted filename and err
    // variable catches any error thrown
    file, err := os.Create(filename)
     
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatalf("failed creating file: %s", err)
    }
     
    // closing the running file after the main
    // method has completed execution and
    // the writing to the file is complete
    defer file.Close()
     
    // writing data to the file using
    // WriteString() method and the
    // length of the string is stored
    // in len variable
    len, err := file.WriteString(text)
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatalf("failed writing to file: %s", err)
    }
 
    fmt.Printf("\nFile Name: %s", file.Name())
    fmt.Printf("\nLength: %d bytes", len)
}
 
func ReadFile(filename string) {
 
    fmt.Printf("\n\nReading a file in Go lang\n")
     
    // file is read using ReadFile()
    // method of ioutil package
    data, err := ioutil.ReadFile(filename)
     
    // in case of an error the error
    // statement is printed and
    // program is stopped
    if err != nil {
        log.Panicf("failed reading data from file: %s", err)
    }
    fmt.Printf("\nFile Name: %s", filename)
    fmt.Printf("\nSize: %d bytes", len(data))
    fmt.Printf("\nData: %s", data)
 
}
 
// main function
func main() {
 
    // user input for filename
    fmt.Println("Enter filename: ")
    var filename string
    fmt.Scanln(&filename)
 
    // user input for file content
    fmt.Println("Enter text: ")
    inputReader := bufio.NewReader(os.Stdin)
    input, _ := inputReader.ReadString('\n')
     
    // file is created and read
    CreateFile(filename, input)
    ReadFile(filename)
}


Output:
 

Reading and Writing the Files in Golang

 



Last Updated : 24 Jun, 2021
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