BinaryReader.Read Method

Definition

Namespace:

System.IO

Assembly:

System.Runtime.dll

Reads bytes from the underlying stream and advances the current position of the stream.

Overloads

Read()	Reads characters from the underlying stream and advances the current position of the stream in accordance with the Encoding used and the specific character being read from the stream.
Read(Span<Byte>)	Reads a sequence of bytes from the current stream and advances the position within the stream by the number of bytes read.
Read(Span<Char>)	Reads, from the current stream, the same number of characters as the length of the provided buffer, writes them in the provided buffer, and advances the current position in accordance with the Encoding used and the specific character being read from the stream.
Read(Byte[], Int32, Int32)	Reads the specified number of bytes from the stream, starting from a specified point in the byte array.
Read(Char[], Int32, Int32)	Reads the specified number of characters from the stream, starting from a specified point in the character array.

Read()

Source:

BinaryReader.cs

Reads characters from the underlying stream and advances the current position of the stream in accordance with the Encoding used and the specific character being read from the stream.

public:
 virtual int Read();

public virtual int Read ();

abstract member Read : unit -> int
override this.Read : unit -> int

Public Overridable Function Read () As Integer

Returns

Int32

The next character from the input stream, or -1 if no characters are currently available.

Exceptions

IOException

An I/O error occurred.

ObjectDisposedException

The stream is closed.

Examples

The following example shows how to read and write data using memory as a backing store. This example displays a list of invalid file path characters to the console. Although the code tries to display a list of all invalid file path characters, not all of the characters are within the displayable set of characters. Because the list of invalid characters can vary based on the system, output for this code may also vary.

using namespace System;
using namespace System::IO;
int main()
{
   int i;
   array<Char>^invalidPathChars = Path::InvalidPathChars;
   MemoryStream^ memStream = gcnew MemoryStream;
   BinaryWriter^ binWriter = gcnew BinaryWriter( memStream );
   
   // Write to memory.
   binWriter->Write( "Invalid file path characters are: " );
   for ( i = 0; i < invalidPathChars->Length; i++ )
   {
      binWriter->Write( invalidPathChars[ i ] );

   }
   
   // Create the reader using the same MemoryStream 
   // as used with the writer.
   BinaryReader^ binReader = gcnew BinaryReader( memStream );
   
   // Set Position to the beginning of the stream.
   binReader->BaseStream->Position = 0;
   
   // Read the data from memory and write it to the console.
   Console::Write( binReader->ReadString() );
   array<Char>^memoryData = gcnew array<Char>(memStream->Length - memStream->Position);
   for ( i = 0; i < memoryData->Length; i++ )
   {
      memoryData[ i ] = Convert::ToChar( binReader->Read() );

   }
   Console::WriteLine( memoryData );
}

using System;
using System.IO;

class BinaryRW
{
    static void Main()
    {
        int i = 0;
        char[] invalidPathChars = Path.InvalidPathChars;
        MemoryStream memStream = new MemoryStream();
        BinaryWriter binWriter = new BinaryWriter(memStream);

        // Write to memory.
        binWriter.Write("Invalid file path characters are: ");
        for(i = 0; i < invalidPathChars.Length; i++)
        {
            binWriter.Write(invalidPathChars[i]);
        }

        // Create the reader using the same MemoryStream
        // as used with the writer.
        BinaryReader binReader = new BinaryReader(memStream);

        // Set Position to the beginning of the stream.
        memStream.Position = 0;

        // Read the data from memory and write it to the console.
        Console.Write(binReader.ReadString());
        char[] memoryData =
            new char[memStream.Length - memStream.Position];
        for(i = 0; i < memoryData.Length; i++)
        {
            memoryData[i] = Convert.ToChar(binReader.Read());
        }
        Console.WriteLine(memoryData);
    }
}

open System
open System.IO

let invalidPathChars = Path.GetInvalidPathChars()
let memStream = new MemoryStream()
let binWriter = new BinaryWriter(memStream)

// Write to memory.
printf "Invalid file path characters are: "
for i = 0 to invalidPathChars.Length - 1 do
    binWriter.Write invalidPathChars[i]

// Create the reader using the same MemoryStream
// as used with the writer.
let binReader = new BinaryReader(memStream)

// Set Position to the beginning of the stream.
memStream.Position <- 0

// Read the data from memory and write it to the console.
printf $"{binReader.ReadString()}"
let memoryData =
    [| for _ = 0L to memStream.Length - memStream.Position - 1L do
        Convert.ToChar(binReader.Read()) |]
printfn $"{memoryData}"

Imports System.IO

Public Class BinaryRW

    Shared Sub Main()
    
        Dim i As Integer = 0
        Dim invalidPathChars() As Char = Path.InvalidPathChars
        Dim memStream As new MemoryStream()
        Dim binWriter As New BinaryWriter(memStream)

        ' Write to memory.
        binWriter.Write("Invalid file path characters are: ")
        For i = 0 To invalidPathChars.Length - 1
            binWriter.Write(invalidPathChars(i))
        Next i

        ' Create the reader using the same MemoryStream 
        ' as used with the writer.
        Dim binReader As New BinaryReader(memStream)

        ' Set Position to the beginning of the stream.
        memStream.Position = 0

        ' Read the data from memory and write it to the console.
        Console.Write(binReader.ReadString())
        Dim memoryData( _
            CInt(memStream.Length - memStream.Position) - 1) As Char
        For i = 0 To memoryData.Length - 1
            memoryData(i) = Convert.ToChar(binReader.Read())
        Next i
        Console.WriteLine(memoryData)
    
    End Sub
End Class

Remarks

BinaryReader does not restore the file position after an unsuccessful read.

For a list of common I/O tasks, see Common I/O Tasks.

See also

• Encoding
• File and Stream I/O
• How to: Read Text from a File
• How to: Write Text to a File

Read(Span<Byte>)

Source:

BinaryReader.cs

Reads a sequence of bytes from the current stream and advances the position within the stream by the number of bytes read.

public:
 virtual int Read(Span<System::Byte> buffer);

public virtual int Read (Span<byte> buffer);

abstract member Read : Span<byte> -> int
override this.Read : Span<byte> -> int

Public Overridable Function Read (buffer As Span(Of Byte)) As Integer

Parameters

buffer

Span<Byte>

A region of memory. When this method returns, the contents of this region are replaced by the bytes read from the current source.

Returns

Int32

The total number of bytes read into the buffer. This can be less than the number of bytes allocated in the buffer if that many bytes are not currently available, or zero (0) if the end of the stream has been reached.

Exceptions

ObjectDisposedException

The stream is closed.

IOException

An I/O error occurred.

Read(Span<Char>)

Source:

BinaryReader.cs

Reads, from the current stream, the same number of characters as the length of the provided buffer, writes them in the provided buffer, and advances the current position in accordance with the Encoding used and the specific character being read from the stream.

public:
 virtual int Read(Span<char> buffer);

public virtual int Read (Span<char> buffer);

abstract member Read : Span<char> -> int
override this.Read : Span<char> -> int

Public Overridable Function Read (buffer As Span(Of Char)) As Integer

Parameters

buffer

Span<Char>

A span of characters. When this method returns, the contents of this region are replaced by the characters read from the current source.

Returns

Int32

The total number of characters read into the buffer. This might be less than the number of characters requested if that many characters are not currently available, or it might be zero if the end of the stream is reached.

Exceptions

ObjectDisposedException

The stream is closed.

IOException

An I/O error occurred.

Read(Byte[], Int32, Int32)

Source:

BinaryReader.cs

Reads the specified number of bytes from the stream, starting from a specified point in the byte array.

public:
 virtual int Read(cli::array <System::Byte> ^ buffer, int index, int count);

public virtual int Read (byte[] buffer, int index, int count);

abstract member Read : byte[] * int * int -> int
override this.Read : byte[] * int * int -> int

Public Overridable Function Read (buffer As Byte(), index As Integer, count As Integer) As Integer

Parameters

buffer

Byte[]

The buffer to read data into.

index

Int32

The starting point in the buffer at which to begin reading into the buffer.

count

Int32

The number of bytes to read.

Returns

Int32

The number of bytes read into buffer. This might be less than the number of bytes requested if that many bytes are not available, or it might be zero if the end of the stream is reached.

Exceptions

ArgumentException

The buffer length minus index is less than count.

-or-

The number of decoded characters to read is greater than count. This can happen if a Unicode decoder returns fallback characters or a surrogate pair.

ArgumentNullException

buffer is null.

ArgumentOutOfRangeException

index or count is negative.

ObjectDisposedException

The stream is closed.

IOException

An I/O error occurred.

Examples

The following example shows how to write binary data by using memory as a backing store. It displays a message to the console that indicates whether the data was written correctly.

using System;
using System.IO;

namespace BinaryRW
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            const int arrayLength = 1000;
            byte[] dataArray = new byte[arrayLength];
            byte[] verifyArray = new byte[arrayLength];

            new Random().NextBytes(dataArray);

            using (BinaryWriter binWriter = new BinaryWriter(new MemoryStream()))
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Writing the data.");
                binWriter.Write(dataArray, 0, arrayLength);

                using (BinaryReader binReader = new BinaryReader(binWriter.BaseStream))
                {
                    binReader.BaseStream.Position = 0;

                    if (binReader.Read(verifyArray, 0, arrayLength) != arrayLength)
                    {
                        Console.WriteLine("Error writing the data.");
                        return;
                    }
                }
            }

            for (int i = 0; i < arrayLength; i++)
            {
                if (verifyArray[i] != dataArray[i])
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("Error writing the data.");
                    return;
                }
            }

            Console.WriteLine("The data was written and verified.");
        }
    }
}

open System
open System.IO

let arrayLength = 1000
let dataArray = Array.zeroCreate<byte> arrayLength
let verifyArray = Array.zeroCreate<byte> arrayLength

Random().NextBytes dataArray

do
    use binWriter = new BinaryWriter(new MemoryStream())
    printfn "Writing the data."
    binWriter.Write(dataArray, 0, arrayLength)

    use binReader = new BinaryReader(binWriter.BaseStream)
    binReader.BaseStream.Position <- 0

    if binReader.Read(verifyArray, 0, arrayLength) <> arrayLength then
        printfn "Error writing the data."
    else
        for i = 0 to arrayLength - 1 do
            if verifyArray[i] <> dataArray[i] then
                printfn "Error writing the data."
            else
                printfn "The data was written and verified."

Imports System.IO

Module Module1

    Sub Main()
        Const upperBound As Integer = 1000
        Dim dataArray(upperBound) As Byte
        Dim verifyArray(upperBound) As Byte

        Dim randomGenerator As New Random
        randomGenerator.NextBytes(dataArray)

        Using binWriter As New BinaryWriter(New MemoryStream())
            Console.WriteLine("Writing the data.")
            binWriter.Write(dataArray, 0, dataArray.Length)

            Using binReader As New BinaryReader(binWriter.BaseStream)
                binReader.BaseStream.Position = 0

                If binReader.Read(verifyArray, 0, dataArray.Length) <> dataArray.Length Then
                    Console.WriteLine("Error writing the data.")
                    Return
                End If
            End Using
        End Using

        For i As Integer = 0 To upperBound
            If verifyArray(i) <> dataArray(i) Then
                Console.WriteLine("Error writing the data.")
                Return
            End If
        Next i

        Console.WriteLine("The data was written and verified.")
    End Sub

End Module

This example reads the contents of a file and displays each byte's numeric value in 16-column format. The end of the file that is being read is detected when the Read method returns zero bytes.

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Text;

public class DumpFileSample
{
    private static readonly int CHUNK_SIZE = 1024;
    public static void Main(String[] args)
    {
        if ((args.Length == 0) || !File.Exists(args[0]))
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Please provide an existing file name.");
        }
        else
        {
            using (FileStream fs = new FileStream(args[0], FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read))
            {
                using (BinaryReader br = new BinaryReader(fs, new ASCIIEncoding()))
                {
                    byte[] chunk;

                    chunk = br.ReadBytes(CHUNK_SIZE);
                    while(chunk.Length > 0)
                    {
                        DumpBytes(chunk, chunk.Length);
                        chunk = br.ReadBytes(CHUNK_SIZE);
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }

    public static void DumpBytes(byte[] bdata, int len)
    {
        int i;
        int j = 0;
        char dchar;
        // 3 * 16 chars for hex display, 16 chars for text and 8 chars
        // for the 'gutter' int the middle.
        StringBuilder dumptext = new StringBuilder("        ", 16 * 4 + 8);
        for (i = 0; i < len; i++)
        {
            dumptext.Insert(j * 3, String.Format("{0:X2} ", (int)bdata[i]));
            dchar = (char)bdata[i];
            //' replace 'non-printable' chars with a '.'.
            if (Char.IsWhiteSpace(dchar) || Char.IsControl(dchar))
            {
                dchar = '.';
            }
            dumptext.Append(dchar);
            j++;
            if (j == 16)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(dumptext);
                dumptext.Length = 0;
                dumptext.Append("        ");
                j = 0;
            }
        }
        // display the remaining line
        if (j > 0)
        {
            for (i = j; i < 16; i++)
            {
                dumptext.Insert(j * 3, "   ");
            }
            Console.WriteLine(dumptext);
        }
    }
}

open System
open System.IO
open System.Text

let CHUNK_SIZE = 1024

let dumpBytes (bdata: byte[]) len =
    let mutable j = 0
    // 3 * 16 chars for hex display, 16 chars for text and 8 chars
    // for the 'gutter' int the middle.
    let dumptext = StringBuilder("        ", 16 * 4 + 8)
    for i = 0 to len - 1 do
        dumptext.Insert(j * 3, $"{int bdata[i]:X2} ") |> ignore
        let dchar = char bdata[i]
        //' replace 'non-printable' chars with a '.'.
        let dchar = 
            if Char.IsWhiteSpace dchar || Char.IsControl dchar then
                '.'
            else 
                dchar
        dumptext.Append dchar |> ignore
        j <- j + 1
        if j = 16 then
            printfn $"{dumptext}"
            dumptext.Length <- 0
            dumptext.Append "        " |> ignore
            j <- 0
    // display the remaining line
    if j > 0 then
        for i = j to 15 do
            dumptext.Insert(j * 3, "   ") |> ignore
        printfn $"{dumptext}"

[<EntryPoint>]
let main args =
    if args.Length = 0 || File.Exists args[0] |> not then
        printfn "Please provide an existing file name."
    else
        use fs = new FileStream(args[0], FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read)
        use br = new BinaryReader(fs, ASCIIEncoding())
        
        let mutable chunk = br.ReadBytes CHUNK_SIZE
        while chunk.Length > 0 do
            dumpBytes chunk chunk.Length
            chunk <- br.ReadBytes CHUNK_SIZE
    0

Imports System.IO
Imports System.Text

Module Module1
    Private ReadOnly CHUNK_SIZE As Integer = 1024
    Public Sub Main(args() As String)
        If ((args.Length = 0) OrElse Not File.Exists(args(0))) Then
            Console.WriteLine("Please provide an existing file name.")
        Else
            Using fs As FileStream = New FileStream(args(0), FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read)
                Using br As New BinaryReader(fs, New ASCIIEncoding())
                    Dim chunk(CHUNK_SIZE) As Byte
                    chunk = br.ReadBytes(CHUNK_SIZE)

                    While chunk.Length > 0
                        DumpBytes(chunk, chunk.Length)
                        chunk = br.ReadBytes(CHUNK_SIZE)
                    End While
                End Using
            End Using
        End If
    End Sub

    Public Sub DumpBytes(bdata() As Byte, len As Integer)
        Dim i As Integer
        Dim j As Integer = 0
        Dim dchar As Char
        ' 3 * 16 chars for hex display, 16 chars for text and 8 chars
        ' for the 'gutter' int the middle.
        Dim dumptext As New StringBuilder("        ", 16 * 4 + 8)
        For i = 0 To len - 1
            dumptext.Insert(j * 3, String.Format("{0:X2} ", CType(bdata(i), Integer)))
            dchar = Convert.ToChar(bdata(i))
            ' replace 'non-printable' chars with a '.'.
            If Char.IsWhiteSpace(dchar) Or Char.IsControl(dchar) Then
                dchar = "."
            End If
            dumptext.Append(dchar)
            j += 1
            If j = 16 Then
                Console.WriteLine(dumptext)
                dumptext.Length = 0
                dumptext.Append("        ")
                j = 0
            End If
        Next i
        ' display the remaining line
        If j > 0 Then
            ' add blank hex spots to align the 'gutter'.
            For i = j To 15
                dumptext.Insert(j * 3, "   ")
            Next i
            Console.WriteLine(dumptext)
        End If
    End Sub

End Module

Remarks

BinaryReader does not restore the file position after an unsuccessful read operation.

For a list of common I/O tasks, see Common I/O Tasks.

See also

• File and Stream I/O
• How to: Read Text from a File
• How to: Write Text to a File

Read(Char[], Int32, Int32)

Source:

BinaryReader.cs

Reads the specified number of characters from the stream, starting from a specified point in the character array.

public:
 virtual int Read(cli::array <char> ^ buffer, int index, int count);

public virtual int Read (char[] buffer, int index, int count);

abstract member Read : char[] * int * int -> int
override this.Read : char[] * int * int -> int

Public Overridable Function Read (buffer As Char(), index As Integer, count As Integer) As Integer

Parameters

buffer

Char[]

The buffer to read data into.

index

Int32

The starting point in the buffer at which to begin reading into the buffer.

count

Int32

The number of characters to read.

Returns

Int32

The total number of characters read into the buffer. This might be less than the number of characters requested if that many characters are not currently available, or it might be zero if the end of the stream is reached.

Exceptions

ArgumentException

The buffer length minus index is less than count.

-or-

The number of decoded characters to read is greater than count. This can happen if a Unicode decoder returns fallback characters or a surrogate pair.

ArgumentNullException

buffer is null.

ArgumentOutOfRangeException

index or count is negative.

ObjectDisposedException

The stream is closed.

IOException

An I/O error occurred.

Examples

The following example shows how to read and write data using memory as a backing store. This example displays a list of invalid file path characters to the console. Although the code tries to display a list of all invalid file path characters, not all of the characters are within the displayable set of characters. Because the list of invalid characters can vary based on the system, output for this code may also vary.

using namespace System;
using namespace System::IO;
int main()
{
   array<Char>^invalidPathChars = Path::InvalidPathChars;
   MemoryStream^ memStream = gcnew MemoryStream;
   BinaryWriter^ binWriter = gcnew BinaryWriter( memStream );
   
   // Write to memory.
   binWriter->Write( "Invalid file path characters are: " );
   binWriter->Write( Path::InvalidPathChars, 0, Path::InvalidPathChars->Length );
   
   // Create the reader using the same MemoryStream 
   // as used with the writer.
   BinaryReader^ binReader = gcnew BinaryReader( memStream );
   
   // Set Position to the beginning of the stream.
   binReader->BaseStream->Position = 0;
   
   // Read the data from memory and write it to the console.
   Console::Write( binReader->ReadString() );
   int arraySize = (int)(memStream->Length - memStream->Position);
   array<Char>^memoryData = gcnew array<Char>(arraySize);
   binReader->Read( memoryData, 0, arraySize );
   Console::WriteLine( memoryData );
}

using System;
using System.IO;

class BinaryRW
{
    static void Main()
    {
        char[] invalidPathChars = Path.InvalidPathChars;
        MemoryStream memStream = new MemoryStream();
        BinaryWriter binWriter = new BinaryWriter(memStream);

        // Write to memory.
        binWriter.Write("Invalid file path characters are: ");
        binWriter.Write(
            Path.InvalidPathChars, 0, Path.InvalidPathChars.Length);

        // Create the reader using the same MemoryStream
        // as used with the writer.
        BinaryReader binReader = new BinaryReader(memStream);

        // Set Position to the beginning of the stream.
        memStream.Position = 0;

        // Read the data from memory and write it to the console.
        Console.Write(binReader.ReadString());
        int arraySize = (int)(memStream.Length - memStream.Position);
        char[] memoryData = new char[arraySize];
        binReader.Read(memoryData, 0, arraySize);
        Console.WriteLine(memoryData);
    }
}

open System.IO

let invalidPathChars = Path.GetInvalidPathChars()
let memStream = new MemoryStream()
let binWriter = new BinaryWriter(memStream)

// Write to memory.
binWriter.Write "Invalid file path characters are: "
binWriter.Write(invalidPathChars, 0, invalidPathChars.Length)

// Create the reader using the same MemoryStream
// as used with the writer.
let binReader = new BinaryReader(memStream)

// Set Position to the beginning of the stream.
memStream.Position <- 0

// Read the data from memory and write it to the console.
printf $"{binReader.ReadString()}"
let arraySize = memStream.Length - memStream.Position |> int
let memoryData = Array.zeroCreate<char> arraySize
binReader.Read(memoryData, 0, arraySize) |> ignore
printfn $"{memoryData}"

Imports System.IO

Public Class BinaryRW

    Shared Sub Main()
    
        Dim invalidPathChars() As Char = Path.InvalidPathChars
        Dim memStream As new MemoryStream()
        Dim binWriter As New BinaryWriter(memStream)

        ' Write to memory.
        binWriter.Write("Invalid file path characters are: ")
        binWriter.Write(Path.InvalidPathChars, 0, _
            Path.InvalidPathChars.Length)

        ' Create the reader using the same MemoryStream 
        ' as used with the writer.
        Dim binReader As New BinaryReader(memStream)

        ' Set Position to the beginning of the stream.
        memStream.Position = 0

        ' Read the data from memory and write it to the console.
        Console.Write(binReader.ReadString())
        Dim upperBound As Integer = _
            CInt(memStream.Length - memStream.Position) - 1
        Dim memoryData(upperBound) As Char
        binReader.Read(memoryData, 0, upperBound)
        Console.WriteLine(memoryData)
    
    End Sub
End Class

Remarks

BinaryReader does not restore the file position after an unsuccessful read operation.

For a list of common I/O tasks, see Common I/O Tasks.

See also

• File and Stream I/O
• How to: Read Text from a File
• How to: Write Text to a File