FileStream returning null characters every other character

Question

I seem to be having some issues with a Filestream in C#. I am trying to read the last line from a VERY large text file, 10mb, that is generated by a MSI installer.

The code I am using is:

string path = @"C:\uninstall.log";
byte[] buffer = new byte[100];

using (FileStream fs = new FileStream(path, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read))
{
    long len = fs.Length;

    fs.Seek(-100, SeekOrigin.End);

    fs.Read(buffer, 0, 100);
}

string foo = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(buffer);
Console.WriteLine("\"" + foo + "\"");

But the output looks similar to this:

H E L L O   W O R L D ! ! ! B L A H   B L A H

Apparently the stream that is read contains a '\0' (null) character every other character. Does anyone know what is causing this?

Answer 1

Use Encoding.UnicodeEncoding instead. Your file is encoded in UTF-16, not UTF-8.