Important Notice

The pages on this site contain documentation for very old MS-DOS software, purely for historical purposes. If you're looking for up-to-date documentation, particularly for programming, you should not rely on the information found here, as it will be woefully out of date.

  ◄Summary► ◄Details► ◄Example►                                   ◄Back►
 
  Arguments
 
    file_variable    Typed, untyped, or text file; already assigned
 
    size             Optional; block size for data transfers; applies
                     only to untyped files (default is 128 bytes)
 
  Description:
 
    The Rewrite procedure creates a new file or overwrites an existing
    file. The name of the file is the device or file name associated
    with file_variable. Use the Assign procedure to associate a device
    or file name with file_variable. Rewrite moves the current
    position of the opened file to the first position in the empty
    file.
 
    If the file already exists, the contents of the file are deleted.
    If the file is already open, it is deleted, and a new one by that
    name is created.
 
    A file can be text, typed, or untyped. Rewrite operates according
    to the type of file:
 
        Opens a text file for writing only. After Rewrite, the Eof
        function returns True. By default, Rewrite associates a
        128-byte buffer with a text file. Use the SetTextBuf procedure
        to specify a buffer of a different size.
 
        Opens typed and untyped files for reading and writing.
 
        Sets the block size to a specified size in untyped files,
        through the size argument. The BlockRead and BlockWrite
        procedures transfer data in blocks of a specific size. The
        FileSize function returns the size of a file in blocks. An
        untyped file has a default block size of 128 bytes. On many
        machines the most efficient size is a multiple of 512 bytes.
 
        Opens a device for output.
 
    To refer to the standard file Output (file handle 1), call Assign
    with a null string, then Rewrite the file.
 
    If file_variable has not been assigned to an external file name,
    an I/O error occurs.
 
    To prevent a program from halting with a run-time error when an
    I/O error occurs, turn off I/O checking with {$I-} and check the
    return value of the IOResult function.