StringStream in C#

Question

I want to be able to build a string from a class that I create that derives from Stream. Specifically, I want to be able to write code like this:

void Print(Stream stream) {     // Some code that operates on a Stream. }  void Main() {     StringStream stream = new StringStream();     Print(stream);     string myString = stream.GetResult(); } 

Can I create a class called StringStream that makes this possible? Or is such a class already available?

Update: In my example, the method Print is provided in a third-party external DLL. As you can see, the argument that Print expects is a Stream. After printing to the Stream, I want to be able to retrieve its content as a string.

Answer 1

You can use tandem of MemoryStream and StreamReader classes:

void Main() {     string myString;      using (var stream = new MemoryStream())     {         Print(stream);          stream.Position = 0;         using (var reader = new StreamReader(stream))         {             myString = reader.ReadToEnd();         }     } } 

Answer 2

Since your Print() method presumably deals with Text data, could you rewrite it to accept a TextWriter parameter?

The library provides a StringWriter: TextWriter but not a StringStream. I suppose you could create one by wrapping a MemoryStream, but is it really necessary?

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After the Update:

void Main()  {   string myString;  // outside using    using (MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream ())   {      Print(stream);      myString = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(stream.ToArray());   }   ...   } 

You may want to change UTF8 to ASCII, depending on the encoding used by Print().