High-Level File I/O VIs **new** 2004/06/21 13:37:18.025 GMT-5 2004/06/21 13:42:20.976 GMT-5 National Instruments certification@ni.com Malan Shiralkar mshiralkar05@hotmail.com Harika Basana ilsai@rice.edu Elizabeth Gregory lizzardg@rice.edu National Instruments certification@ni.com National Instruments LabVIEW I/O In this lesson, you will learn how to use the high-level File I/O VIs. Most File I/O VIs and functions perform only one step in a file I/O operation. However, some high-level File I/O VIs designed for common file I/O operations perform all four steps. Although these VIs are not always as efficient as the low-level functions, you might find them easier to use. Use the high-level File I/O VIs located on the top row of the File I/O palette to perform common I/O operations, such as writing to or reading from the following types of data: Characters to or from text files Lines from text files 1D or 2D arrays of single-precision numeric values to or from spreadsheet text files 1D or 2D arrays of single-precision numeric values or signed 16-bit integers to or from binary files High-level File I/O VIs include the following: Write to Spreadsheet File Converts a 2D or 1D array of single-precision numbers to a text string and writes the string to a new byte stream file or appends the string to an existing file. You also can transpose the data. The VI opens or creates the file before writing to it and closes it afterwards. You can use this VI to create a text file readable by most spreadsheet applications. Read From Spreadsheet File Reads a specified number of lines or rows from a numeric text file beginning at a specified character offset and converts the data to a 2D single-precision array of numbers. The VI opens the file before reading from it and closes it afterwards. You can use this VI to read a spreadsheet file saved in text format. Write Characters to File Writes a character string to a new byte stream file or appends the string to an existing file. The VI opens or creates the file before writing to it and closes it afterwards. Read Characters From File Reads a specified number of characters from a byte stream file beginning at start of read offset. The VI opens the file before reading from it and closes it afterwards. Read Lines From File Reads a specified number of lines from a text or binary file beginning at a specified character offset. The VI opens the file before reading from it and closes it afterwards. Binary File VIs These VIs read from and write to binary files. Data can be integers or single-precision numbers.