C# write multiple console lines to text file

Question

I am trying to print the file attributes, for every file in a given folder, to a new text file.

I can print them to the console successfully with this:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.IO;

namespace ConsoleApp2
{
    class Program
    {
        [STAThread]
        public static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            List<string> arrHeaders = new List<string>();

            Shell32.Shell shell = new Shell32.Shell();
            Shell32.Folder objFolder;

            objFolder = shell.NameSpace(@"C:\testfolder\testprop");

            for (int i = 0; i < short.MaxValue; i++)
            {
                string header = objFolder.GetDetailsOf(null, i);
                if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(header))
                    break;
                arrHeaders.Add(header);
            }

            foreach (Shell32.FolderItem2 item in objFolder.Items())
            {
                for (int i = 0; i < arrHeaders.Count; i++)
                {
                    Console.WriteLine(
                      $"{i}\t{arrHeaders[i]}: {objFolder.GetDetailsOf(item, i)}");
                   
                }
            }

            Console.ReadLine();
        }
    }
}

And this shows exactly what I expected in the console, but I want that to print that information to a text file instead.

I'm trying to work with this, though I don't know if this is the best way to do it:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.IO;

namespace ConsoleApp2
{
    class Program
    {
        [STAThread]
        public static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            List<string> arrHeaders = new List<string>();

            Shell32.Shell shell = new Shell32.Shell();
            Shell32.Folder objFolder;

            objFolder = shell.NameSpace(@"C:\testfolder\testprop");

            for (int i = 0; i < short.MaxValue; i++)
            {
                string header = objFolder.GetDetailsOf(null, i);
                if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(header))
                    break;
                arrHeaders.Add(header);
            }

            foreach (Shell32.FolderItem2 item in objFolder.Items())
            {
                for (int i = 0; i < arrHeaders.Count; i++)
                {
                    FileStream fs = new FileStream("C:\\testfolder\\testprop\\Test.txt", FileMode.Create);
                    StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(fs);
                    Console.SetOut(sw);
                    Console.WriteLine($"{i}\t{arrHeaders[i]}: {objFolder.GetDetailsOf(item, i)}");
                    sw.Close();

                }
            }
        }
    }
}

And that will create a text file, but it only shows one line and it looks like the last attribute that would have shown in the console version.

I admittedly do not know what I'm doing, but does someone see a fix to print all lines from console to the text file instead of only the last line?

There are lots of problems with your approach, but fundamentally the problem is that you are overwriting the file each iteration of your loop. See duplicate question. Beyond that: you absolutely should _not_ be changing the `Console.Out` writer, and really you shouldn't be reopening the file with each line of text either. Just create the `sw` object outside the loop, write each line to it inside the loop, and close it when you're done. Leave `Console` alone, and put the `sw` allocation inside a `using` statement so that it gets closed automatically, even if an exception occurs. — Peter Duniho, Aug 16 '20 at 19:10
Thank you, I used that duplicate question (or one I found from that) and fixed it. And found a couple more getting even closer to what I ultimately need. — phpwhatthertf, Aug 17 '20 at 22:11

C# write multiple console lines to text file

0 Answers0