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FileOpen
Last update:
May 18, 2026
Note: 
You can find the CFFiddle demo of this function and other file functions as part of a project that is shared with you.
Click the button below to launch CFFiddle.
To copy the project in your workspace in CFFiddle, follow the steps below:
- Log in with your Gmail or Facebook credentials.
- Navigate to the project in the left pane.
- Once you make some changes in any cfm in the project, a pop up displays asking you to save the project.
- Give the project a suitable name and click Save.
- Create a folder named dir1 and upload a text file, myfile.txt.
Description
Opens an on-disk or in-memory file to read, write, or append. Use this function with the FileRead function to read large files.
Returns
A file object that represents the open file.
Category
Function syntax
FileOpen(filepath, [mode, charset]) |
See also
History
ColdFusion 8: Added this function.
Parameters
Parameter | Description |
filepath | An absolute path of an on-disk or in-memory file on the server. |
mode | Action to perform on the file, including the following:
|
charset | The character set of the file. |
Usage
The file does not have to exist before you open it. To write a new file, open it for writing, and then write it.The file object is a handle to a file. You can use the object as a structure to access the following information:
- filename Name of the file you opened
- filepath Absolute path and filename
- lastmodified The time when the file was most recently modified
- mode The action for which the file was opened
- size The file size in bytes
- status Whether the file object is open or closed
The following opens a file, and then displays the absolute path and filename of that file:
<cfscript>
myfile = FileOpen("c:\temp\test1.txt", "read");
</cfscript>
myfile refers to:
<cfdump var="#myfile.filepath#">Use the following syntax to specify an in-memory file, which is not written to disk. In-memory files speed processing of transient data.
ram:///filepath |
The filepath can include directories, for example ram:///petStore/images/poodle.jpg. Create the directories in the path before you specify the file. For more information on using in-memory files, see Working with in-memory files in the Developing ColdFusion Applications.Always close a file after opening it. When you use the FileOpen function to open a file, the file stream from the disk is opened and contents are read from or written to it. The FileClose function closes the stream. If you do not close a file, the stream remains open; in that case, the operating system can lock the file, which results in the file not being usable until the server is restarted.
Example
The following example opens a file, reads and outputs each line of the file, then closes the file.
<h3>FileOpen Example</h3>
<cfscript>
myfile = FileOpen("c:\temp\test1.txt", "read");
while(NOT FileIsEOF(myfile))
{
x = FileReadLine(myfile);
WriteOutput("#x# <br>"); }
FileClose(myfile);
</cfscript>
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