reading and writing to files in windows

Hi all,
I am writting a windows app that read and writes files using the common dialog boxes for opening a file and saving the file.
I was just wondering which is the best way to read and write bianary files in a windows program. I know how to do it the 'C' way, and c++ fstream way as well as using a handle and CreateFile(), but I want to know which way is better and why(if anyone knows or has a link please post :D )
Any info is greatly appreciated.

All intermediate file access mechanisms implemented in Win32, whether it be OpenFile, fopen, fstream, Win16 _lopen, etc., all ultimately call CreateFile. The following functions cover much of the work in opening files:


CreateFile
ReadFile
WriteFile
SetFilePointer
SetEndOfFile
CloseHandle

Thanks for the info poccil. I will look those functions up in the help files.

All of them work. The C way, the C++ way, the WinAPI. The best API is the API you know well enough not to make any mistakes.

hehehe to true. That is why I went the fstream route, I know it better and had a less chance of messing it up :eek:

Generally speaking I don't use CreateFile() unless I really need to optimize disk IO. I think that is a good rule of thumb.

I find WinAPI a very messy, inconsistent hulk of mostly obsolete code. I prefer not to use it when possible. :rolleyes:

So what do you use? MFC? I want to learn both better because API lets you see what is happening but MFC is much quicker to use for Development

MFC provides CFile class for file operations.