BinaryReader

BinaryReader is a class in the .NET Framework that provides a way to read primitive data types from a stream in binary format. It is typically used in conjunction with a Stream object, such as a FileStream, to read data that has been written in a binary format.

The BinaryReader class allows developers to read various data types, including booleans, bytes, characters, integers, longs, floats, doubles, and strings. It provides methods such as ReadBoolean(), ReadByte(), ReadChar(), ReadInt32(), ReadInt64(), ReadSingle(), ReadDouble(), and ReadString(). These methods read a specific number of bytes from the underlying stream and convert them into the corresponding data type.

One of the key features of BinaryReader is its ability to handle different byte orders (endianness). By default, it assumes a little-endian format, but this can be changed by specifying a different Encoding when creating a BinaryReader instance. This is important when reading binary data that may have been written on systems with different byte order conventions.

BinaryReader is a read-only class. It does not provide any methods for writing data. For writing binary data, the BinaryWriter class is used. It's important to ensure that the underlying stream is still open and readable when using BinaryReader. After reading data, it is good practice to close or dispose of the BinaryReader and the underlying stream to release system resources.