How To Pick Text File In Windows 10

Introduction 

 
In Windows 10 we have OpenFileDialog which opens a dialog to pick the files. Here we are going to pick the text file in Windows 10.
Create a new Windows 10 project and create a button and image control to perform File Picker operation.
 
Firstly, create a new instance for FileOpenPicker as in the following code snippet:
  1. FileOpenPicker openPicker = new FileOpenPicker();       
Next, we have to set file picker ViewMode, you could ignore this, but if you would like to add, there are two options, such as List and Thumbnail. Here I will set thumbnail.
  1. openPicker.ViewMode = PickerViewMode.Thumbnail;    
Then set the suggested location as you wish. I am going to set the default location as a document library.
  1. openPicker.SuggestedStartLocation = PickerLocationId.DocumentsLibrary;     
We need to add FileTypeFilter; it is a mandatory field that you should add. It requires at least one type.
 
The FileTypeFilter is a read-only collection. We would be able to add values.
Here I am setting filter type for .txt files.
  1. openPicker.FileTypeFilter.Add(".txt");     
Finally, we are going to show the file picker dialog as in the following code snippet and we have the option to select single or multiple file selection.
  1. StorageFile file = await openPicker.PickSingleFileAsync();     
Finally, we are going to read the selected file using a stream and assign it to the text block.
  1. var stream = await file.OpenAsync(Windows.Storage.FileAccessMode.Read);    
  2. using (StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(stream.AsStream()))    
  3. {    
  4.    textBlockShow.Text = reader.ReadToEnd();    
  5. }    
The whole code looks like the following code:
  1. private async void buttonPick_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)    
  2. {    
  3.     FileOpenPicker openPicker = new FileOpenPicker();    
  4.     openPicker.ViewMode = PickerViewMode.Thumbnail;    
  5.     openPicker.SuggestedStartLocation = PickerLocationId.DocumentsLibrary;    
  6.     openPicker.FileTypeFilter.Add(".txt");    
  7.     StorageFile file = await openPicker.PickSingleFileAsync();    
  8.     if(file != null)    
  9.     {    
  10.         var stream = await file.OpenAsync(Windows.Storage.FileAccessMode.Read);    
  11.         using(StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(stream.AsStream()))    
  12.         {    
  13.             textBlockShow.Text = reader.ReadToEnd();    
  14.         }    
  15.     }    
  16.     else    
  17.     {}    
  18. }     
Now run, debug and run the app and here is the following output,
 
output
 
Open file
 

Summary

 
In this article, we learned about how to pick the text files in Windows 10.


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