Reading from a local text file into C#? [closed]

Question

I have searched and only found this information for console, but I was wondering if it is possible to read text from a file on my local machine into the code, format it, and display in on screen? We have a text file with some legal jargon that can be updated periodically, and instead of having the user sift through code, we were wanting to just update the text file and have the changes apply online.

Thanks!

EDIT: Thanks to everyone's comments, here is an edit with the requirements. The program is in C# ASP.NET website. I have read many articles about this being done in a console, but I am not sure how to make it work for me. Thanks again for everybody's contribution.

Answer 1

You have the complete program (ASP.net). You must have a file inside the App_Data folder inside your ASP.net app, In this App your file name "Details.txt" which should be available inside your App_Data folder.

You have Hidden-field and a paragraph available in your web page. When form loads, at that moment read the data from the text file and populate to the Hidden-field control. And in $(document).ready() Jquery function populate data to paragraph from Hidden-field.

Your .aspx page :

<%@ Page Title="Home Page" Language="C#" MasterPageFile="~/Site.master" AutoEventWireup="true"
    CodeBehind="Default.aspx.cs" Inherits="ReadFromTextFileToTextBoxWebApp._Default" %>

<asp:Content ID="HeaderContent" runat="server" ContentPlaceHolderID="HeadContent">
  <style type="text/css" >
   .details
   {
       background-color:Purple;color:yellow;top: 100px;
   }
   .txtDetails
   {
       left:150px;width:200px;height:100px;
   }
  </style>
  <script src="Scripts/jquery-1.8.3.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
  <script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">
      $(document).ready(function () {
          var data = $("#<%=HiddenField1.ClientID %>").val();
          $('#pTextData').text(data);
      });

</script>
</asp:Content>
<asp:Content ID="BodyContent" runat="server" ContentPlaceHolderID="MainContent">
    <h2>
        Welcome to ASP.NET!
    </h2>
     <div>
        <asp:HiddenField ID="HiddenField1" runat="server" />
        <p id="pTextData">
        </p>
     </div>
</asp:Content>

and here is your code behind page :

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using System.IO;

namespace ReadFromTextFileToTextBoxWebApp
{
    public partial class _Default : System.Web.UI.Page
    {
        protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            var data = File.ReadAllText(Server.MapPath("~/App_Data/Details.txt"));
            HiddenField1.Value = data.ToString();   
        }           
    }
}

Answer 2

Here are two methods to work in .Net

var legal = File.ReadAllText(@"C:\Legal\Legalease.txt");

// Or from the CWD of where the program is executing

var legal = File.ReadAllText(Path.Combine(Environment.CurrentDirectory, "Legalease.txt"));

---

Update

Remember the Asp.Net is running as a user defined in IIS's application pool for that website. If the user does not have read access to where the file exists, it cannot be read. Make sure the user defined in the website's application pool has the right to read the file and verify the file has been published to the read location.