System.IO.Stream

Provides a generic view of a sequence of bytes. This is an abstract base class for byte streams.

public abstract class Stream : IDisposable

Overview

Properties

Methods

Events

Examples

Overview

The Stream class defines a generic interface for reading and writing a series of bytes. Derived classes implement specific storage mediums such as files, memory, network, and cryptographic streams.

Supports synchronous and asynchronous operations.
Provides methods for reading, writing, seeking, and flushing.
Implements IDisposable for resource cleanup.

Properties

Property	Type	Description
`CanRead`	bool	Indicates whether the current stream supports reading.
`CanSeek`	bool	Indicates whether the current stream supports seeking.
`CanWrite`	bool	Indicates whether the current stream supports writing.
`Length`	long	Gets the length of the stream in bytes.
`Position`	long	Gets or sets the current position within the stream.

Methods

Method	Signature	Description
`Read`	`int Read(byte[] buffer, int offset, int count)`	Reads a block of bytes from the stream and writes the data to a buffer.
`Write`	`void Write(byte[] buffer, int offset, int count)`	Writes a block of bytes to the stream from a buffer.
`Seek`	`long Seek(long offset, SeekOrigin origin)`	Sets the position within the current stream.
`Flush`	`void Flush()`	Clears all buffers for the stream and causes any buffered data to be written.
`ReadAsync`	`Task ReadAsync(byte[] buffer, int offset, int count, CancellationToken cancellationToken)`	Asynchronously reads a block of bytes.
`WriteAsync`	`Task WriteAsync(byte[] buffer, int offset, int count, CancellationToken cancellationToken)`	Asynchronously writes a block of bytes.
`CopyToAsync`	`Task CopyToAsync(Stream destination, int bufferSize = 81920, CancellationToken cancellationToken = default)`	Asynchronously reads the bytes from the current stream and writes them to another stream.
`Dispose`	`void Dispose()`	Releases the unmanaged resources used by the stream.

Events

The Stream class does not expose any events.

Examples

Reading from a file using FileStream (derived from Stream):

using System;
using System.IO;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        const string path = "example.txt";
        using (Stream fileStream = new FileStream(path, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read))
        {
            byte[] buffer = new byte[1024];
            int bytesRead;
            while ((bytesRead = fileStream.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length)) > 0)
            {
                Console.Write(System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(buffer, 0, bytesRead));
            }
        }
    }
}

Writing to a memory stream:

using System;
using System.IO;

class Demo
{
    static void Main()
    {
        using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream())
        {
            byte[] data = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes("Hello, Stream!");
            ms.Write(data, 0, data.Length);
            ms.Position = 0; // rewind

            using (StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(ms))
            {
                Console.WriteLine(reader.ReadToEnd());
            }
        }
    }
}