Creating an empty file in C#

Question

What's the simplest/canonical way to create an empty file in C#/.NET? The simplest way I could find so far is: ``` System.IO.File.WriteAllLines(filename, new string[0]); ```

Accepted Answer

Using just `File.Create` will leave the file open, which probably isn't what you want.

You could use:

```
// Results in compiler warning "warning CS0642: Possible mistaken empty statement"
using (File.Create(filename)) ;
```

That looks slightly odd, mind you. You could use braces instead:

```
using (File.Create(filename)) {}
```

Or just call `Dispose` directly:

```
File.Create(filename).Dispose();
```

Either way, if you're going to use this in more than one place you should probably consider wrapping it in a helper method, e.g.

```
public static void CreateEmptyFile(string filename)
{
    File.Create(filename).Dispose();
}
```

Note that calling `Dispose` directly instead of using a `using` statement doesn't really make much difference here as far as I can tell - the only way it could make a difference is if the thread were aborted between the call to `File.Create` and the call to `Dispose`. If that race condition exists, I suspect it would also exist in the `using` version, if the thread were aborted at the very end of the `File.Create` method, just before the value was returned...

Creating an empty file in C#

Solution

Problem