How to read a text file in C#

Reading a text file in C# requires the System.IO class. There are two main methods for reading a text file:

  • ReadAllText()
  • ReadAllLines()

The ReadAllText() method

The ReadAllText() method takes the path of the file to be read and the encoding of the file (optional). Take a look at the code below to see how this method can be used to read a file.

main.cs
data.txt
using System;

using System.IO;

using System.Text;



class Program

{

    static void Main(string[] args)

    {

        var path = "data.txt";

        string content = File.ReadAllText(path, Encoding.UTF8);

        Console.WriteLine(content);

    }

}

The ReadAllLines() method

The ReadAllLines() method takes the path of the file to be read and the encoding of the file(optional). The method reads a text file into an array of strings where each line in the file is one element in the array. Take a look at the code below to see how ReadAllLines can be used.

main.cs
data.txt
using System;

using System.IO;

using System.Text;



class Program

{

    static void Main(string[] args)

    {

        var path = "data.txt";

        string[] lines = File.ReadAllLines(path, Encoding.UTF8);

        foreach (string line in lines)

        {

            Console.WriteLine(line);

        }

    }

}

Free Resources

Copyright ©2025 Educative, Inc. All rights reserved