Question

I need to read a 950mb txt file in a console app without getting a System.OutOfMemoryException, with the following structure:

"6152902100000017";20110701;20110701;53;"D";30359130;"NOTA DE DEBITO";"DEB.COMPRA BCO";0;;0;"6152902100000017";0;0;0;0;0;"902"

I can read smaller files but the exception is thrown on bigger files.
Any suggestions?

Answer 1

The following will almost always fail, 950MB at 2 Bytes/char is too close to the 2GB limit :

string AllText = File.ReadAllText(fileName);  

Reading it as an array of string will probably work (esp on a 64 bit system) if you have 4+ GB:

string[] AllLines = File.ReadAllLines(fileName);

But your best bet is to process it 1 line at a time:

// requires Fx4
foreach(string line in File.GetLines(fileName))
{
    // use 'line'
}