System.Net.WebClient Class – .NET API Reference

Overview

The System.Net.WebClient class provides common methods for sending data to and receiving data from a resource identified by a URI.

It simplifies many operations such as downloading strings, files, and uploading data.

using System.Net;

var client = new WebClient();
string content = client.DownloadString("https://example.com");
Console.WriteLine(content);

Properties Show/Hide

Methods Show/Hide

Example: Downloading a CSV File

This example demonstrates how to download a CSV file and display its first few rows.

using System;
using System.Net;
using System.Data;
using System.IO;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        using (var client = new WebClient())
        {
            client.Encoding = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8;
            string csv = client.DownloadString("https://people.sc.fsu.edu/~jburkardt/data/csv/airtravel.csv");

            var lines = csv.Split('\n');
            foreach (var line in lines[..5])
                Console.WriteLine(line);
        }
    }
}