This class is the basic building block of I/O in the .NET Framework. Many types of application use a Stream in one way or another. When calling System.Console.WriteLine( ), you use a TextWriter, which contains a StreamWriter. When you design an ASP.NET application, the System.Web.UI.Page uses a System.Net.Sockets.NetworkStream. In fact, whenever you access a remote database server you are using a NetworkStream.

To determine whether a given Stream can read, write, or seek, check CanRead, CanWrite, or CanSeek, respectively. If your stream can seek, you may seek forward or backward using Seek( ). Length reveals the length of the stream, which can also be set by calling SetLength( ), and Position allows you to check your current position in the stream.

To perform asynchronous I/O, call BeginRead( ) or BeginWrite( ). Notification of an asynchronous operation comes in two ways: either via an System.AsyncCallback delegate callback passed in as part of the BeginRead( )/BeginWrite( ) call, or else by calling the EndRead( ) or EndWrite( ) method explicitly, which blocks the calling thread until the async operation completes.

Streams usually hold on to a precious resource (a network connection or a file handle), which should be freed as soon as it is not needed any more. Because destruction is completely nondeterministic with garbage collection, be sure to call Close( ) at the end of the Stream's useful lifetime. (Alternatively, wrap the use of the Stream in a using block to have the compiler generate the call to Dispose( )—which in turn calls Close( )—when the block finishes.)

public abstract class Stream : MarshalByRefObject, IDisposable {
// Protected Constructors
   protected Stream( );
// Public Static Fields
   public static readonly Stream Null;   
// =System.IO.Stream+NullStream
// Public Instance Properties
   public abstract bool CanRead{get; }
   public abstract bool CanSeek{get; }
   public abstract bool CanWrite{get; }
   public abstract long Length{get; }
   public abstract long Position{set; get; }
// Public Instance Methods
   public virtual IAsyncResult BeginRead(byte[ ] buffer, int offset, int count, 
        AsyncCallback callback, object state);
   public virtual IAsyncResult BeginWrite(byte[ ] buffer, int offset, int count, 
        AsyncCallback callback, object state);
   public virtual void Close( );
   public virtual int EndRead(IAsyncResult asyncResult);
   public virtual void EndWrite(IAsyncResult asyncResult);
   public abstract void Flush( );
   public abstract int Read(in byte[ ] buffer, int offset, int count);
   public virtual int ReadByte( );
   public abstract long Seek(long offset, SeekOrigin origin);
   public abstract void SetLength(long value);
   public abstract void Write(byte[ ] buffer, int offset, int count);
   public virtual void WriteByte(byte value);
// Protected Instance Methods
   protected virtual WaitHandle CreateWaitHandle( );
}

Hierarchy

System.Object System.MarshalByRefObject Stream(System.IDisposable)

Subclasses

BufferedStream, FileStream, MemoryStream, System.Net.Sockets.NetworkStream

Returned By

Multiple types

Passed To

Multiple types