HB_FTempCreate

Creates and opens a temporary file.

Syntax

      HB_FTempCreate( [<cTempDir>] , ;
                         [<cPrefix>]  , ;
                         [<nFileAttr>], ;
                         [@<cFileName>]  ) --> <nFileHandle>

Arguments

<cTempDir> : An optional character string specifying the directory where to create the temporary file. It defaults to the operating system variable SET TEMP or SET TMP. Operating system variables can be queried with function HB_GetEnv().

<cPrefix> : An optional character string of three characters specifying the prefix to use for the name of the temporary file. It defaults to the string “hb”.

<nFileAttr> : An optional numeric value defining how to create and open the temporary file. See function FCreate() for a description of <nFileAttr>.

@<cFileName> : If specified, <cFileName> must be passed by reference. It receives the file name of the created temporary file as a character string.

Returns

<nFileHandle> : a numeric value > 0 when the temporary file is successfully created. This is the file handle of the created temporary file.

Description

Function HB_FTempCreate() creates a temporary file and opens it. The return value is the file handle of the temporary file. It can be used with low level file functions, such as FWrite() to store data in the file.

Temporary files are often required in an application. HB_FTempCreate() guarantees that the file name of the newly created file is unique, so that no existing file will be overwritten. To obtain the file name of the temporary file, parameter <cFileName> must be passed by reference. It can then later be passed to function FErase() in order to remove the temporary file from disk.

Example

      PROC TestHBFTemp()

         LOCAL nFileHandle
         LOCAL cFileName

         nFileHandle := HB_FTempCreate( ,;   // <cTempDir>
                                        ,;   // <cPrefix>
                                        ,;   // <nFileAttr>
                                        , @cFileName )

         IF nFileHandle > 0
            ? 'Temp file builded with name :', cFileName
            WAIT
            FClose( nFileHandle )
            FErase( cFileName )
         ELSE
            ALERT( "Couldn't build temp file"  )
         ENDI

      RETU // TestHBFTemp()

Seealso

TempFile(), HB_FTempCreateEx(), FCreate(), FErase(), FWrite(), HB_GetEnv()