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WebClient.DownloadString Method (String)

.NET Framework 4.5

Downloads the requested resource as a String. The resource to download is specified as a String containing the URI.

Namespace: System.Net
Assembly: System (in System.dll)

public string DownloadString(
	string address
)

Parameters

address: Type: System.String
A String containing the URI to download.

Return Value

Type: System.String
A String containing the requested resource.

Exceptions

Exception	Condition
ArgumentNullException	The address parameter is null.
WebException	The URI formed by combining BaseAddress and address is invalid. -or- An error occurred while downloading the resource.
NotSupportedException	The method has been called simultaneously on multiple threads.

Exception

Condition

ArgumentNullException

The address parameter is null.

WebException

The URI formed by combining BaseAddress and address is invalid.

-or-

An error occurred while downloading the resource.

NotSupportedException

The method has been called simultaneously on multiple threads.

Remarks

This method retrieves the specified resource. After it downloads the resource, the method uses the encoding specified in the Encoding property to convert the resource to a String. This method blocks while downloading the resource. To download a resource and continue executing while waiting for the server's response, use one of the DownloadStringAsync methods.

If the BaseAddress property is not an empty string ("") and address does not contain an absolute URI, address must be a relative URI that is combined with BaseAddress to form the absolute URI of the requested data. If the QueryString property is not an empty string, it is appended to address.

This method uses the RETR command to download an FTP resource. For an HTTP resource, the GET method is used.

Note
This member outputs trace information when you enable network tracing in your application. For more information, see Network Tracing.

Examples

The following code example demonstrates calling this method.

C++

    public static void DownloadString (string address)
    {
        WebClient client = new WebClient ();
        string reply = client.DownloadString (address);

        Console.WriteLine (reply);
    }

Version Information

.NET Framework

Supported in: 4.5, 4, 3.5, 3.0, 2.0

.NET Framework Client Profile

Supported in: 4, 3.5 SP1

Platforms

Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, Windows 7, Windows Vista SP2, Windows Server 2008 (Server Core Role not supported), Windows Server 2008 R2 (Server Core Role supported with SP1 or later; Itanium not supported)

The .NET Framework does not support all versions of every platform. For a list of the supported versions, see .NET Framework System Requirements.

Reference

WebClient Class

DownloadString Overload

System.Net Namespace

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