Empty a text file in windows

Sign in to vote. Tuesday, March 17, PM. GetLength a Then TextWindow. Hello Wilhem, The problem in this example is that an empty file is not always empty I thought you presented once a program to edit the hidden ascii characters in a file some old ms utility If you are using some "enters" to create "empty lines" in the untitled program you will even get a higher number. Wednesday, March 25, PM.

Sorry, the If statement is wrong and should be If Text. GetFiles Program. Thursday, March 26, AM. Hello Jan, Ok the answer on the first question is perfect. Thursday, March 26, PM. I made a program to list the bytes of a file with LDFile. WriteLine "" TextWindow. Write Text. The difference with cd. The dir command should indicate the file size as 11 bytes: " helloworld! On the Windows command-line, one way would be to use fsutil :. Then it will run the command abc which is not a valid command.

In this way, you have gotten a new empty file with the name myFile. But the weird thing I found was the file is being created in the directory even if the command is not a standard Windows command. See: Equivalent of Linux touch to create an empty file with PowerShell.

Don't type anything. Just press F6 to save it. However, it will print "File copied", but when you open the file, it will be empty. Check this article for more information. However, you'll see standard error 's output in the CMD :. You can suppress this error message if you want by redirecting standard error to NUL.

Then press the Enter key. It will open the file. Then press the Esc key. Then type :wp and press the Enter key. It will create a new file with empty data. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Collectives on Stack Overflow. Learn more. How can I create an empty file at the command line in Windows? Ask Question. Asked 12 years, 2 months ago. Active 14 days ago. Viewed 1. Is there another method in the standard cmd? Improve this question.

Peter Mortensen Grendler Grendler 5, 3 3 gold badges 15 15 silver badges 8 8 bronze badges. Just found a true batch command resulting in an empty file 0 byte : I have updated my answer. Duplicate: stackoverflow. But, IMHO, the answers are better here. This to me just proves that MS-DOS is garbage if you cannot create a plain empty file with one command.

KolobCanyon: you can, of course, per the answers already posted. But do you really think the ability to quickly create an empty file should be a priority for an operating system aimed at end users and needing to run in 16K of RAM? It's not a particularly useful thing to do, after all, except in a few rare edge cases.

Show 3 more comments. Active Oldest Votes. Note: the resulting file is not empty but includes a return line sequence: 2 bytes. Improve this answer. VonC VonC 1. Using the rem command avoids creating a file with an empty line in it. Noufal Ibrahim: don't let this fool you; just see the next answer which has a much easier and equally working solution. What's done here is partially wrong in the first case not empty but contains a line break and way overcomplicated in the second one.

You can disregard the error message in this context. Show 11 more comments. Tim Cooper k 36 36 gold badges silver badges bronze badges. Justin Justin 2, 1 1 gold badge 11 11 silver badges 2 2 bronze badges. This adds "NUL is. Add a comment. Here's another way: cd. Adam Liss Learn more. Ask Question. Asked 9 years, 10 months ago. Active 3 months ago. Viewed 45k times.

Improve this question. Dave Miller 2 2 silver badges 12 12 bronze badges. Xonatron Xonatron Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes.

Improve this answer. I was hoping there was something more elegant than this, but this will do. I also fixed a silly bug in the CALL solution too many colons in label. Good to see this question not only answered, but also explained and generalized! To suppress the output, use symbol before if command- if. Related questions: stackoverflow.

Show 1 more comment. But hey, who says you can't improve once more? It seems to run about a few thousand times faster on my large volume than the previous one ;- I hope you like it! Axel Mertes Axel Mertes 51 1 1 silver badge 2 2 bronze badges. Your optimized version is nicely done, however, it is not an answer to the question.

The OP explicitly asked how to test and delete a single specific file, not an entire hierarchy.