HttpWebRequest.ContentLength Property

Definition

Gets or sets the Content-length HTTP header.

public:
 virtual property long ContentLength { long get(); void set(long value); };
public override long ContentLength { get; set; }
member this.ContentLength : int64 with get, set
Public Overrides Property ContentLength As Long

Property Value

The number of bytes of data to send to the Internet resource. The default is -1, which indicates the property has not been set and that there is no request data to send.

Exceptions

The new ContentLength value is less than 0.

Examples

The following code example sets the ContentLength property to the length of the string being posted.

// Set the 'Method' property of the 'Webrequest' to 'POST'.
myHttpWebRequest->Method = "POST";
Console::WriteLine( "\nPlease enter the data to be posted to the (http://www.contoso.com/codesnippets/next.asp) Uri :" );

// Create a new String* Object* to POST data to the Url.
String^ inputData = Console::ReadLine();

String^ postData = String::Concat( "firstone= ", inputData );
ASCIIEncoding^ encoding = gcnew ASCIIEncoding;
array<Byte>^ byte1 = encoding->GetBytes( postData );

// Set the content type of the data being posted.
myHttpWebRequest->ContentType = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded";

// Set the content length of the String* being posted.
myHttpWebRequest->ContentLength = byte1->Length;

Stream^ newStream = myHttpWebRequest->GetRequestStream();

newStream->Write( byte1, 0, byte1->Length );
Console::WriteLine( "The value of 'ContentLength' property after sending the data is {0}", myHttpWebRequest->ContentLength );

// Close the Stream Object*.
newStream->Close();
// Set the 'Method' property of the 'Webrequest' to 'POST'.
myHttpWebRequest.Method = "POST";
Console.WriteLine ("\nPlease enter the data to be posted to the (http://www.contoso.com/codesnippets/next.asp) Uri :");

// Create a new string object to POST data to the Url.
string inputData = Console.ReadLine ();


string postData = "firstone=" + inputData;
ASCIIEncoding encoding = new ASCIIEncoding ();
byte[] byte1 = encoding.GetBytes (postData);

// Set the content type of the data being posted.
myHttpWebRequest.ContentType = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded";

// Set the content length of the string being posted.
myHttpWebRequest.ContentLength = byte1.Length;

Stream newStream = myHttpWebRequest.GetRequestStream ();

newStream.Write (byte1, 0, byte1.Length);
Console.WriteLine ("The value of 'ContentLength' property after sending the data is {0}", myHttpWebRequest.ContentLength);

// Close the Stream object.
newStream.Close ();
' Set the 'Method' property of the 'Webrequest' to 'POST'.
myHttpWebRequest.Method = "POST"

Console.WriteLine(ControlChars.Cr + "Please enter the data to be posted to the (http://www.contoso.com/codesnippets/next.asp) Uri :")
' Create a new string object to POST data to the Url.
Dim inputData As String = Console.ReadLine()
Dim postData As String = "firstone" + ChrW(61) + inputData
Dim encoding As New ASCIIEncoding()
Dim byte1 As Byte() = encoding.GetBytes(postData)
' Set the content type of the data being posted.
myHttpWebRequest.ContentType = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
' Set the content length of the string being posted.
myHttpWebRequest.ContentLength = byte1.Length
Dim newStream As Stream = myHttpWebRequest.GetRequestStream()
newStream.Write(byte1, 0, byte1.Length)
Console.WriteLine("The value of 'ContentLength' property after sending the data is {0}", myHttpWebRequest.ContentLength)
newStream.Close()

Remarks

The ContentLength property contains the value to send as the Content-length HTTP header with the request.

Any value other than -1 in the ContentLength property indicates that the request uploads data and that only methods that upload data are allowed to be set in the Method property.

After the ContentLength property is set to a value, that number of bytes must be written to the request stream that is returned by calling the GetRequestStream method or both the BeginGetRequestStream and the EndGetRequestStream methods.

Note

The value for this property is stored in WebHeaderCollection. If WebHeaderCollection is set, the property value is lost.

Applies to