Question

I have a “|” delimited file that all I want to do is read all the lines in it and where “<\HRM>” exists replace it with “” (nothing). And where “HRM\” exists replace it with ;. It’s got to write out everything in the same order it was read in.

I’d like to do this by just editing the original write, not writing a new one. If I have to write out a new file then i guess I have to.

Answer 1

The question is how big is the file might change the solution or the very least slow it down.

using (StreamReader stream = new StreamReader(File.Open(@"YourFilePath", FileMode.Open)))
{
    string fileText = stream.ReadToEnd();

    // Do your replacements
    fileText = fileText.Replace(@"<\HRM>", string.Empty);
    fileText = fileText.Replace(@"HRM\", ";");

    using (StreamWriter writer = new StreamWriter(File.Open("@YourFilePath", FileMode.Create)))
    {
        // You do a create because the new file will have less characters than the old one
        writer.Write(fileText);
    }
}