EndOfStream for BinaryReader

Question

BinaryReader does not have EndOfStream property. Is it safe to use following code to check if end of stream is reached?

reader.BaseStream.Length>reader.BaseStream.Position

Answer 1

The easiest way I found is to check the returned value of the BinaryReader's PeekChar() method. If it returns -1, then you reached the end of the stream.

Answer 2

It depends. There are various stream types that do not implement the Length or Position property, you'd get a NotSupportedException. NetworkStream for example. Of course, if you'd use such a stream then you really do have to know up front how often to call the BinaryReader.Read() method. So, yes, it's fine.

Answer 3

This won't work as a general solution because it assumes that the BaseStream value supports the Length property. Many Stream implementation do not and instead throw a NotSupportedException. In particular any networking base stream such as HttpRequestStream and NetworkStream