Reads a specified number of characters from a TextStream file and returns the resulting string.

object.Read(characters)

Arguments

object

Required. Always the name of a TextStream object.

characters

Required. Number of characters you want to read from the file.

The following example illustrates how to use the Read method to read a six character header from a file and return the resulting string:

[JScript]
function GetHeader()
{
   var fso, f;
   var ForReading = 1, ForWriting = 2;
   fso = new ActiveXObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject");
   f = fso.OpenTextFile("c:\\testfile.txt", ForWriting, true);
   f.Write("Header");
   f.Write("1234567890987654321");
   f.Close();
   f = fso.OpenTextFile("c:\\testfile.txt", ForReading);
   return(f.Read(6));
}
[VBScript]
Function ReadTextFileTest
   Const ForReading = 1, ForWriting = 2, ForAppending = 8
   Dim fso, f, Msg
   Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
   Set f = fso.OpenTextFile("c:\testfile.txt", ForWriting, True)
   f.Write "Hello world!"
   Set f = fso.OpenTextFile("c:\testfile.txt", ForReading)
   ReadTextFileTest = f.Read(5)
End Function

See Also

ReadAll Method | ReadLine Method | Skip Method | SkipLine Method
Applies To: TextStream Object