BinaryReader

BinaryReader

CF 1.0, disposable

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System.IO (mscorlib.dll)

class

This class allows you to read data from a Stream . When using a BinaryReader , the data represented by a Stream is regarded as a binary format, and bits are merely read from the stream and copied into the appropriate types. The methods prefixed with Read( ) allow you to grab data of a specific type from the front of the Stream and advance the current position. The next table shows how many bytes each of these methods reads in from a stream.

Method	Bytes read	Method	Bytes read
Read	variable	ReadInt32	4
ReadBoolean	1	ReadInt64	8
ReadByte	1	ReadSByte	1
ReadBytes	variable	ReadSingle	4
ReadChar	2	ReadString	variable
ReadChars	variable	ReadUInt16	2
ReadDecimal	16	ReadUInt32	4
ReadDouble	8	ReadUInt64	8

ReadString( ) uses the current encoding of the BinaryReader , which can be set when you call the constructor. Strings are prefixed with their length. PeekChar( ) allows you to look at the first character of a stream (a System.Char , which is two bytes) without advancing the position of the Stream . Because a binary reader may hold on to resources that should be freed when not needed, the BinaryReader must be closed using Close( ) or by wrapping it in a using block (which calls the protected Dispose( ) method to do the cleanup at the end of the using block).

 public class  BinaryReader  : IDisposable {  // Public Constructors  public  BinaryReader  (Stream   input   );    public  BinaryReader  (Stream   input   ,         System.Text.Encoding   encoding   );  // Public Instance Properties  public virtual Stream  BaseStream  {get; }  // Public Instance Methods  public virtual void  Close  ( );    public virtual int  PeekChar  ( );    public virtual int  Read  ( );    public virtual int  Read  (byte[ ]   buffer   , int   index   , int   count   );    public virtual int  Read  (char[ ]   buffer   , int   index   , int   count   );    public virtual bool  ReadBoolean  ( );    public virtual byte  ReadByte  ( );    public virtual byte[ ]  ReadBytes  (int   count   );    public virtual char  ReadChar  ( );    public virtual char[ ]  ReadChars  (int   count   );    public virtual decimal  ReadDecimal  ( );    public virtual double  ReadDouble  ( );    public virtual short  ReadInt16  ( );    public virtual int  ReadInt32  ( );    public virtual long  ReadInt64  ( );    public virtual sbyte  ReadSByte  ( );    public virtual float  ReadSingle  ( );    public virtual string  ReadString  ( );    public virtual ushort  ReadUInt16  ( );    public virtual uint  ReadUInt32  ( );    public virtual ulong  ReadUInt64  ( );  // Protected Instance Methods  protected virtual void  Dispose  (bool   disposing   );    protected virtual void  FillBuffer  (int   numBytes   );    protected int  Read7BitEncodedInt  ( ); }