C# BinaryReader Class: Read Binary Files

In this tutorial, we'll demonstrate how to use the BinaryReader class in C# to read binary files. The BinaryReader class is part of the System.IO namespace and provides methods for reading binary data from a stream.

Set up the environment

Create a new C# Console Application project in Visual Studio and add the following namespaces:

using System.IO;
using System.Text;

Create a binary file

For this tutorial, we need a binary file to read. You can create a binary file using the BinaryWriter class. The following code writes a string, an integer, and a double to a binary file named data.bin:

using (FileStream fs = new FileStream("data.bin", FileMode.Create))
{
    using (BinaryWriter bw = new BinaryWriter(fs, Encoding.UTF8))
    {
        bw.Write("Hello, BinaryReader!");
        bw.Write(42);
        bw.Write(3.14);
    }
}

Read a binary file

To read the binary file created in the previous step, use the BinaryReader class. The following code reads the string, integer, and double from the data.bin file:

using (FileStream fs = new FileStream("data.bin", FileMode.Open))
{
    using (BinaryReader br = new BinaryReader(fs, Encoding.UTF8))
    {
        string text = br.ReadString();
        int number = br.ReadInt32();
        double value = br.ReadDouble();

        Console.WriteLine($"Text: {text}");
        Console.WriteLine($"Number: {number}");
        Console.WriteLine($"Value: {value}");
    }
}

When you run the Console Application, you should see the following output:

Text: Hello, BinaryReader!
Number: 42
Value: 3.14

In this tutorial, we've shown you how to use the BinaryReader class in C# to read binary files. The BinaryReader class provides methods for reading binary data from a stream, making it easy to read different data types from binary files.

C# BinaryReader example:

Description: This example introduces the BinaryReader class in C#, which provides methods for reading binary data from streams.

Code:

using (FileStream fileStream = new FileStream("binaryfile.bin", FileMode.Open))
using (BinaryReader binaryReader = new BinaryReader(fileStream))
{
    // Read binary data using BinaryReader methods
    int intValue = binaryReader.ReadInt32();
    double doubleValue = binaryReader.ReadDouble();
    // ... continue reading as needed
}

Seeking and navigating in binary files with BinaryReader C#:

Description: Explaining how to use the Seek method of BinaryReader to navigate to a specific position in a binary file.

Code:

using (FileStream fileStream = new FileStream("binaryfile.bin", FileMode.Open))
using (BinaryReader binaryReader = new BinaryReader(fileStream))
{
    // Seek to a specific position in the file
    binaryReader.BaseStream.Seek(8, SeekOrigin.Begin);

    // Read data from the new position
    double newValue = binaryReader.ReadDouble();
}