File.AppendAllText Method

Definition

Appends the specified string to the file, creating the file if it does not already exist.

Overloads

AppendAllText(String, ReadOnlySpan<Char>)

Appends the specified string to the file, creating the file if it does not already exist.

AppendAllText(String, String)

Opens a file, appends the specified string to the file, and then closes the file. If the file does not exist, this method creates a file, writes the specified string to the file, then closes the file.

AppendAllText(String, ReadOnlySpan<Char>, Encoding)

Appends the specified string to the file, creating the file if it does not already exist.

AppendAllText(String, String, Encoding)

Appends the specified string to the file using the specified encoding, creating the file if it does not already exist.

AppendAllText(String, ReadOnlySpan<Char>)

Appends the specified string to the file, creating the file if it does not already exist.

C#
public static void AppendAllText(string path, ReadOnlySpan<char> contents);

Parameters

path
String

The file to append to.

contents
ReadOnlySpan<Char>

The characters to write to the file.

Exceptions

path is null.

path is empty.

The specified path, file name, or both exceed the system-defined maximum length.

The specified path is invalid (for example, it is on an unmapped drive).

An I/O error occurred while opening the file.

path specified a file that is read-only.

-or-

path specified a file that is hidden.

-or-

path specified a directory.

-or-

The caller does not have the required permission.

-or-

This operation is not supported on the current platform.

path is in an invalid format.

Remarks

Given a string and a file path, this method opens the specified file, appends the string to the end of the file using the specified encoding,

and then closes the file. The file handle is guaranteed to be closed by this method, even if exceptions are raised. The method creates the file

if it doesn't exist, but it doesn't create new directories. Therefore, the value of the path parameter must contain existing directories.

Applies to

.NET 10 and .NET 9
Product Versions
.NET 9, 10

AppendAllText(String, String)

Source:
File.cs
Source:
File.cs
Source:
File.cs

Opens a file, appends the specified string to the file, and then closes the file. If the file does not exist, this method creates a file, writes the specified string to the file, then closes the file.

C#
public static void AppendAllText(string path, string contents);
C#
public static void AppendAllText(string path, string? contents);

Parameters

path
String

The file to append the specified string to.

contents
String

The string to append to the file.

Exceptions

.NET Framework and .NET Core versions older than 2.1: path is a zero-length string, contains only white space, or contains one or more invalid characters. You can query for invalid characters by using the GetInvalidPathChars() method.

path is null.

The specified path, file name, or both exceed the system-defined maximum length.

The specified path is invalid (for example, the directory doesn't exist or it is on an unmapped drive).

An I/O error occurred while opening the file.

path specified a file that is read-only.

-or-

This operation is not supported on the current platform.

-or-

path specified a directory.

-or-

The caller does not have the required permission.

path is in an invalid format.

The caller does not have the required permission.

Examples

The following code example demonstrates the use of the AppendAllText method to add extra text to the end of a file. In this example, a file is created if it doesn't already exist, and text is added to it. However, the directory named temp on drive C must exist for the example to complete successfully.

C#
using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Text;

class Test
{
    public static void Main()
    {
        string path = @"c:\temp\MyTest.txt";

        // This text is added only once to the file.
        if (!File.Exists(path))
        {
            // Create a file to write to.
            string createText = "Hello and Welcome" + Environment.NewLine;
            File.WriteAllText(path, createText);
        }

        // This text is always added, making the file longer over time
        // if it is not deleted.
        string appendText = "This is extra text" + Environment.NewLine;
        File.AppendAllText(path, appendText);

        // Open the file to read from.
        string readText = File.ReadAllText(path);
        Console.WriteLine(readText);
    }
}

Remarks

Given a string and a file path, this method opens the specified file, appends the string to the end of the file, and then closes the file. The file handle is guaranteed to be closed by this method, even if exceptions are raised.

The method creates the file if it doesn't exist, but it doesn't create new directories. Therefore, the value of the path parameter must contain existing directories.

Applies to

.NET 10 and other versions
Product Versions
.NET Core 1.0, Core 1.1, Core 2.0, Core 2.1, Core 2.2, Core 3.0, Core 3.1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
.NET Framework 2.0, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, 4.5.1, 4.5.2, 4.6, 4.6.1, 4.6.2, 4.7, 4.7.1, 4.7.2, 4.8, 4.8.1
.NET Standard 1.3, 1.4, 1.6, 2.0, 2.1
UWP 10.0

AppendAllText(String, ReadOnlySpan<Char>, Encoding)

Appends the specified string to the file, creating the file if it does not already exist.

C#
public static void AppendAllText(string path, ReadOnlySpan<char> contents, System.Text.Encoding encoding);

Parameters

path
String

The file to append to.

contents
ReadOnlySpan<Char>

The characters to write to the file.

encoding
Encoding

The encoding to apply to the string.

Exceptions

path or encoding is null.

path is empty.

The specified path, file name, or both exceed the system-defined maximum length.

The specified path is invalid (for example, it is on an unmapped drive).

An I/O error occurred while opening the file.

path specified a file that is read-only.

-or-

path specified a file that is hidden.

-or-

path specified a directory.

-or-

The caller does not have the required permission.

-or-

This operation is not supported on the current platform.

path is in an invalid format.

Remarks

Given a string and a file path, this method opens the specified file, appends the string to the end of the file using the specified encoding,

and then closes the file. The file handle is guaranteed to be closed by this method, even if exceptions are raised. The method creates the file

if it doesn't exist, but it doesn't create new directories. Therefore, the value of the path parameter must contain existing directories.

Applies to

.NET 10 and .NET 9
Product Versions
.NET 9, 10

AppendAllText(String, String, Encoding)

Source:
File.cs
Source:
File.cs
Source:
File.cs

Appends the specified string to the file using the specified encoding, creating the file if it does not already exist.

C#
public static void AppendAllText(string path, string contents, System.Text.Encoding encoding);
C#
public static void AppendAllText(string path, string? contents, System.Text.Encoding encoding);

Parameters

path
String

The file to append the specified string to.

contents
String

The string to append to the file.

encoding
Encoding

The character encoding to use.

Exceptions

.NET Framework and .NET Core versions older than 2.1: path is a zero-length string, contains only white space, or contains one or more invalid characters. You can query for invalid characters by using the GetInvalidPathChars() method.

path is null.

The specified path, file name, or both exceed the system-defined maximum length.

The specified path is invalid (for example, the directory doesn't exist or it is on an unmapped drive).

An I/O error occurred while opening the file.

path specified a file that is read-only.

-or-

This operation is not supported on the current platform.

-or-

path specified a directory.

-or-

The caller does not have the required permission.

path is in an invalid format.

The caller does not have the required permission.

Examples

The following code example demonstrates the use of the AppendAllText method to add extra text to the end of a file. In this example, a file is created if it doesn't already exist, and text is added to it. However, the directory named temp on drive C must exist for the example to complete successfully.

C#
using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Text;

class Test
{
    public static void Main()
    {
        string path = @"c:\temp\MyTest.txt";

        // This text is added only once to the file.
        if (!File.Exists(path))
        {
            // Create a file to write to.
            string createText = "Hello and Welcome" + Environment.NewLine;
            File.WriteAllText(path, createText, Encoding.UTF8);
        }

        // This text is always added, making the file longer over time
        // if it is not deleted.
        string appendText = "This is extra text" + Environment.NewLine;
        File.AppendAllText(path, appendText, Encoding.UTF8);

        // Open the file to read from.
        string readText = File.ReadAllText(path);
        Console.WriteLine(readText);
    }
}

Remarks

Given a string and a file path, this method opens the specified file, appends the string to the end of the file using the specified encoding, and then closes the file. The file handle is guaranteed to be closed by this method, even if exceptions are raised.

The method creates the file if it doesn't exist, but it doesn't create new directories. Therefore, the value of the path parameter must contain existing directories.

Applies to

.NET 10 and other versions
Product Versions
.NET Core 1.0, Core 1.1, Core 2.0, Core 2.1, Core 2.2, Core 3.0, Core 3.1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
.NET Framework 2.0, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, 4.5.1, 4.5.2, 4.6, 4.6.1, 4.6.2, 4.7, 4.7.1, 4.7.2, 4.8, 4.8.1
.NET Standard 1.3, 1.4, 1.6, 2.0, 2.1
UWP 10.0