How can I create a readable Stream?

Question

I'm doing some tests, and swapping out a Stream that usually comes from a web request with a stream I have created.

I create the stream like this:

MemoryStream responseDataStream = new MemoryStream();

using (StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(responseDataStream))
{
    sw.Write(responseData);
    sw.Flush();
    sw.Close();
}

However when my code tries to consume it:

StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(myStream);

I get the error Stream was not readable.

I want to prepare my stream so that it is ready to be consumed. How can I do this?

Answer 1

By default, StreamWriter takes ownership of the stream you pass in the constructor. When the stream writer is closed, it will close the underlying stream as well. You need to use a different overload of the constructor, e.g. new StreamWriter(responseDataStream, Encoding.UTF8, true).

Second, the stream is still at the position of the last write. You need to rewind it:

responseDataStream.Position = 0;