Best way to convert Stream (of unknown length) to byte array, in .NET?

Question

I have the following code to read data from a Stream (in this case, from a named pipe) and into a byte array:

// NPSS is an instance of NamedPipeServerStream

int BytesRead;
byte[] StreamBuffer = new byte[BUFFER_SIZE]; // size defined elsewhere (less than total possible message size, though)
MemoryStream MessageStream = new MemoryStream();

do
{
    BytesRead = NPSS.Read(StreamBuffer, 0, StreamBuffer.Length);
    MessageStream.Write(StreamBuffer, 0, BytesRead);
} while (!NPSS.IsMessageComplete);

byte[] Message = MessageStream.ToArray(); // final data

Could you please take a look and let me know if it can be done more efficiently or neatly? Seems a bit messy as it is, using a MemoryStream. Thanks!

David Neale · Accepted Answer · 2020-04-17 07:29:51Z

23

Shamelessly copied from Jon Skeet's article.

public static byte[] ReadFully (Stream stream)
{
   byte[] buffer = new byte[32768];
   using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream())
   {
       while (true)
       {
           int read = stream.Read (buffer, 0, buffer.Length);
           if (read <= 0)
               return ms.ToArray();
           ms.Write (buffer, 0, read);
       }
   }
}

edited Apr 17, 2020 at 7:29

answered Jun 18, 2010 at 12:24

David Neale

17.1k6 gold badges64 silver badges87 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

2 Comments

Stephen Cleary Over a year ago

This reads to the end of the stream, but the intent is to only read until IsMessageComplete.

Frank Hamming Over a year ago

Thanks for the link to the article; it looks like I'm doing pretty much the same algorithm but with a different terminating condition on the loop.

Derek Beattie · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-30 14:18:12Z

3

int read = stream.Read (buffer, 0, buffer.Length);

This line will block forever if there is no data Available. Read is a blocking function and it will block the thread until it reads at least one byte but if there is no data then it will block forever.

edited Sep 30, 2013 at 14:18

Derek Beattie

9,4784 gold badges33 silver badges45 bronze badges

answered Jun 20, 2012 at 15:41

Abhinaw Sharma

6765 silver badges8 bronze badges

3 Comments

Ivandro Jao Over a year ago

@derek-beattie how can I produce this issues?

Derek Beattie Over a year ago

@IvandroIsmael abhinaw answered this one

Ivandro Jao Over a year ago

Ohw, I'm sorry mate Derek-Beattie. /cc @abhinaw

Stephen Cleary · Accepted Answer · 2010-06-18 12:34:16Z

1

It looks like your current solution is pretty good. You may consider wrapping it up into an extension method if you'd like the code to look cleaner.

answered Jun 18, 2010 at 12:34

Stephen Cleary

460k78 gold badges721 silver badges858 bronze badges

1 Comment

Frank Hamming Over a year ago

Interesting, I'd never heard of extension methods prior to your post. Thanks for the tip and for looking at my code

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Best way to convert Stream (of unknown length) to byte array, in .NET?

3 Answers 3

2 Comments

3 Comments

1 Comment

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

3 Answers 3

2 Comments

3 Comments

1 Comment

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related