How to read a text file reversely with iterator in

Question

I need to process a large file, around 400K lines and 200 M. But sometimes I have to process from bottom up. How can I use iterator (yield return) here? Basically I don't like to load everything in memory. I know it is more efficient to use iterator in .NET.

Answer 1

In case anyone else comes across this, I solved it with the following PowerShell script which can easily be modified into a C# script with a small amount of effort.

[System.IO.FileStream]$fileStream = [System.IO.File]::Open("C:\Name_of_very_large_file.log", [System.IO.FileMode]::Open, [System.IO.FileAccess]::Read, [System.IO.FileShare]::ReadWrite)
[System.IO.BufferedStream]$bs = New-Object System.IO.BufferedStream $fileStream;
[System.IO.StreamReader]$sr = New-Object System.IO.StreamReader $bs;


$buff = New-Object char[] 20;
$seek = $bs.Seek($fileStream.Length - 10000, [System.IO.SeekOrigin]::Begin);

while(($line = $sr.ReadLine()) -ne $null)
{
     $line;
}

This basically starts reading from the last 10,000 characters of a file, outputting each line.

Answer 2

You can read the file one character at a time backwards and cache all characters until you reach a carriage return and/or line feed.

You then reverse the collected string and yeld it as a line.

Answer 3

There are good answers here already, and here's another LINQ-compatible class you can use which focuses on performance and support for large files. It assumes a "\r\n" line terminator.

Usage:

var reader = new ReverseTextReader(@"C:\Temp\ReverseTest.txt");
while (!reader.EndOfStream)
    Console.WriteLine(reader.ReadLine());

ReverseTextReader Class:

/// <summary>
/// Reads a text file backwards, line-by-line.
/// </summary>
/// <remarks>This class uses file seeking to read a text file of any size in reverse order.  This
/// is useful for needs such as reading a log file newest-entries first.</remarks>
public sealed class ReverseTextReader : IEnumerable<string>
{
    private const int BufferSize = 16384;   // The number of bytes read from the uderlying stream.
    private readonly Stream _stream;        // Stores the stream feeding data into this reader
    private readonly Encoding _encoding;    // Stores the encoding used to process the file
    private byte[] _leftoverBuffer;         // Stores the leftover partial line after processing a buffer
    private readonly Queue<string> _lines;  // Stores the lines parsed from the buffer

    #region Constructors

    /// <summary>
    /// Creates a reader for the specified file.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="filePath"></param>
    public ReverseTextReader(string filePath)
        : this(new FileStream(filePath, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.Read), Encoding.Default)
    { }

    /// <summary>
    /// Creates a reader using the specified stream.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="stream"></param>
    public ReverseTextReader(Stream stream)
        : this(stream, Encoding.Default)
    { }

    /// <summary>
    /// Creates a reader using the specified path and encoding.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="filePath"></param>
    /// <param name="encoding"></param>
    public ReverseTextReader(string filePath, Encoding encoding)
        : this(new FileStream(filePath, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.Read), encoding)
    { }

    /// <summary>
    /// Creates a reader using the specified stream and encoding.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="stream"></param>
    /// <param name="encoding"></param>
    public ReverseTextReader(Stream stream, Encoding encoding)
    {          
        _stream = stream;
        _encoding = encoding;
        _lines = new Queue<string>(128);            
        // The stream needs to support seeking for this to work
        if(!_stream.CanSeek)
            throw new InvalidOperationException("The specified stream needs to support seeking to be read backwards.");
        if (!_stream.CanRead)
            throw new InvalidOperationException("The specified stream needs to support reading to be read backwards.");
        // Set the current position to the end of the file
        _stream.Position = _stream.Length;
        _leftoverBuffer = new byte[0];
    }

    #endregion

    #region Overrides

    /// <summary>
    /// Reads the next previous line from the underlying stream.
    /// </summary>
    /// <returns></returns>
    public string ReadLine()
    {
        // Are there lines left to read? If so, return the next one
        if (_lines.Count != 0) return _lines.Dequeue();
        // Are we at the beginning of the stream? If so, we're done
        if (_stream.Position == 0) return null;

        #region Read and Process the Next Chunk

        // Remember the current position
        var currentPosition = _stream.Position;
        var newPosition = currentPosition - BufferSize;
        // Are we before the beginning of the stream?
        if (newPosition < 0) newPosition = 0;
        // Calculate the buffer size to read
        var count = (int)(currentPosition - newPosition);
        // Set the new position
        _stream.Position = newPosition;
        // Make a new buffer but append the previous leftovers
        var buffer = new byte[count + _leftoverBuffer.Length];
        // Read the next buffer
        _stream.Read(buffer, 0, count);
        // Move the position of the stream back
        _stream.Position = newPosition;
        // And copy in the leftovers from the last buffer
        if (_leftoverBuffer.Length != 0)
            Array.Copy(_leftoverBuffer, 0, buffer, count, _leftoverBuffer.Length);
        // Look for CrLf delimiters
        var end = buffer.Length - 1;
        var start = buffer.Length - 2;
        // Search backwards for a line feed
        while (start >= 0)
        {
            // Is it a line feed?
            if (buffer[start] == 10)
            {
                // Yes.  Extract a line and queue it (but exclude the \r\n)
                _lines.Enqueue(_encoding.GetString(buffer, start + 1, end - start - 2));
                // And reset the end
                end = start;
            }
            // Move to the previous character
            start--;
        }
        // What's left over is a portion of a line. Save it for later.
        _leftoverBuffer = new byte[end + 1];
        Array.Copy(buffer, 0, _leftoverBuffer, 0, end + 1);
        // Are we at the beginning of the stream?
        if (_stream.Position == 0)
            // Yes.  Add the last line.
            _lines.Enqueue(_encoding.GetString(_leftoverBuffer, 0, end - 1));

        #endregion

        // If we have something in the queue, return it
        return _lines.Count == 0 ? null : _lines.Dequeue();
    }

    #endregion

    #region IEnumerator<string> Interface

    public IEnumerator<string> GetEnumerator()
    {
        string line;
        // So long as the next line isn't null...
        while ((line = ReadLine()) != null)
            // Read and return it.
            yield return line;
    }

    IEnumerator IEnumerable.GetEnumerator()
    {
        throw new NotImplementedException();
    }

    #endregion
}