FileStream.CanWrite Property

Definition

Gets a value that indicates whether the current stream supports writing.

C#
public override bool CanWrite { get; }

Property Value

true if the stream supports writing; false if the stream is closed or was opened with read-only access.

Examples

The following example uses the CanWrite property to check whether a stream supports writing.

C#
using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Text;

class Test
{
    
    public static void Main()
    {
        string path = @"c:\temp\MyTest.txt";

        // Ensure that the file is readonly.
        File.SetAttributes(path, File.GetAttributes(path) | FileAttributes.ReadOnly);

        //Create the file.
        using (FileStream fs = new FileStream (path, FileMode.OpenOrCreate, FileAccess.Read))
        {
            if (fs.CanWrite)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("The stream for file {0} is writable.", path);
            }
            else
            {
                Console.WriteLine("The stream for file {0} is not writable.", path);
            }
        }
    }
}

The following is an example using the CanWrite property. The output of this code is "MyFile.txt is writable." To get the output message "MyFile.txt can be both written to and read from.", change the FileAccess parameter to ReadWrite in the FileStream constructor.

C#
using System;
using System.IO;

class TestRW
{
    public static void Main(String[] args)
    {
        FileStream fs = new FileStream("MyFile.txt", FileMode.OpenOrCreate, FileAccess.Write);
        if (fs.CanRead && fs.CanWrite)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("MyFile.txt can be both written to and read from.");
        }
        else if (fs.CanWrite)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("MyFile.txt is writable.");
        }
    }
}

Remarks

If a class derived from Stream does not support writing, a call to SetLength, Write, BeginWrite, or WriteByte throws a NotSupportedException.

If the stream is closed, this property returns false.

Applies to

Product Versions
.NET Core 1.0, Core 1.1, Core 2.0, Core 2.1, Core 2.2, Core 3.0, Core 3.1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
.NET Framework 1.1, 2.0, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, 4.5.1, 4.5.2, 4.6, 4.6.1, 4.6.2, 4.7, 4.7.1, 4.7.2, 4.8, 4.8.1
.NET Standard 1.3, 1.4, 1.6, 2.0, 2.1
UWP 10.0

See also