Visual Basic 2008 Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach

5.16. Create a Temporary File

Problem

You need to create a file that will be placed in the user-specific temporary directory and will have a unique name, so that it will not conflict with temporary files generated by other programs.

Solution

Use the Shared GetTempFileName method of the System.IO.Path class, which returns a path made up of the user's temporary directory and a randomly generated file name.

How It Works

You can use a number of approaches to generate temporary files. In simple cases, you might just create a file in the application directory, possibly using a GUID or a timestamp in conjunction with a random value as the file name. However, the Path class provides a helper method that can save you some work. It creates a file with ...