How do I use a String as a Stream in .Net?

Question

I need to call a method that accepts a stream argument. The method loads text into the stream, which would normally be a file. I'd like to simply populate a string with the contents of the stream, instead of writing it to a file. How do I do this?

Answer 1

Use a MemoryStream with a StreamReader. Something like:

using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream())
using (StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(ms))
{
   // pass the memory stream to method
   ms.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin); // added from itsmatt
   string s = sr.ReadToEnd();
}

Answer 2

Use the StringWriter to act as a stream onto a string:

StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
StringWriter sw = new StringWriter(sb);
CallYourMethodWhichWritesToYourStream(sw);
return sb.ToString();