Read files into Byte array - Common mistake

Hello everyone!

I did a little search for file reading methods and the one I've found for reading Byte arrays looks like this (short form):

VB Code:

ReDim Preserve Temp(LOF(FileNum))
Get FileNum, , Temp

I really wonder, why people didn't yet see this is wrong... the code above reads 1 more byte than necessary because LOF returns the number of bytes where arrays go from 0 to x and not from 1 to x ! The correct code thus would be:

VB Code:

ReDim Preserve Temp(LOF(FileNum) [b]- 1[/b])
Get FileNum, , Temp

(border notice: Preserve is faster - always use it when you're going to overwrite the data anways)

Beware yourself making this error! And you should always be careful when copying other people's code - better test it out before using it!

Fox

btw, you have a slight *mishap* there. If the file does not exists or has a lengh of zero, it will fail, arrays can not be size -1 (unless you have a split function :))

I was just showing the basics ;) The checks if there's anything to do at all should of course happen before doing anthing.