Question

I want to be able to read any file into a string, for instance the way notepad might open a word file. Using the following code:

StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(filePath);
text += sr.ReadToEnd();
sr.Close();

works fine on a basic text file but when using it on say a word file I just get a few odd characters whereas opening the same file in notepad shows me the entire file, text, special characters etc. I’m using this as part of a file drop into a textbox. Basically I’m looking to get the same output you would get when you open any file in notepad. What should I be using instead?

Answer 1

Using your code from the original question and opening a file, does show the entire stream (when looking it in debugger) – The problem is that most of these binary files have null terminators (\0 char) which will cause most viewers to stop reading the contents of the stream.

If you remove/escape the '\0' you’ll see the entire stream just like in notepad.

For example:

string filePath = @"c:\windows\system32\calc.exe";
StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(filePath);
string text = sr.ReadToEnd();
sr.Close();

textBox1.Text = text.Replace('\0', ' ');

Add a textbox1 to a form and see for yourself… You’ll see the entire stream…