BinaryReader::ReadBytes Method (Int32)

.NET Framework (current version)

Reads the specified number of bytes from the current stream into a byte array and advances the current position by that number of bytes.

Namespace: System.IO
Assembly: mscorlib (in mscorlib.dll)

Syntax

C++

public:
virtual array<unsigned char>^ ReadBytes(
	int count
)

Parameters

count: Type: System::Int32
The number of bytes to read. This value must be 0 or a non-negative number or an exception will occur.

Return Value

Type: array<System::Byte>^

A byte array containing data read from the underlying stream. This might be less than the number of bytes requested if the end of the stream is reached.

Exceptions

Exception	Condition
ArgumentException	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.
IOException	An I/O error occurs.
ObjectDisposedException	The stream is closed.
ArgumentOutOfRangeException	count is negative.

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.

Examples

The following code example shows how to write binary data using memory as a backing store, and then verify that the data was written correctly.

C++

using namespace System;
using namespace System::IO;
int main()
{
   const int arrayLength = 1000;

   // Create random data to write to the stream.
   array<Byte>^dataArray = gcnew array<Byte>(arrayLength);
   (gcnew Random)->NextBytes( dataArray );
   BinaryWriter^ binWriter = gcnew BinaryWriter( gcnew MemoryStream );

   // Write the data to the stream.
   Console::WriteLine(  "Writing the data." );
   binWriter->Write( dataArray );

   // Create the reader using the stream from the writer.
   BinaryReader^ binReader = gcnew BinaryReader( binWriter->BaseStream );

   // Set the stream position to the beginning of the stream.
   binReader->BaseStream->Position = 0;

   // Read and verify the data.
   array<Byte>^verifyArray = binReader->ReadBytes( arrayLength );
   if ( verifyArray->Length != arrayLength )
   {
      Console::WriteLine( "Error writing the data." );
      return  -1;
   }

   for ( int i = 0; i < arrayLength; i++ )
   {
      if ( verifyArray[ i ] != dataArray[ i ] )
      {
         Console::WriteLine( "Error writing the data." );
         return  -1;
      }

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

This example reads the contents of a file and displays it to the console as dump text. The end of the file that is being read is detected when the length of the Byte array returned from ReadBytes is zero.

C++

No code example is currently available or this language may not be supported.

Version Information

Universal Windows Platform
Available since 8
.NET Framework
Available since 1.1
Portable Class Library
Supported in: portable .NET platforms
Silverlight
Available since 2.0
Windows Phone Silverlight
Available since 7.0
Windows Phone
Available since 8.1