write byte trouble

[Krantor]

Hi all,

i am quite new to c# and was wondering if i could get assistance on an issue im having with writing a binary file from the database to my local machine, this is the code i have:

string inputString = Convert.ToString(reader["Attachment"]);
 
                        byte[] AttachmentByte;
                        AttachmentByte = StringToByteArray(inputString);
 
                        string dir = "";
                        dir = reader["Attachment"].ToString();
                        string FilePath = dir;
 
                        // Specify a "currently active folder"
                        string activeDir = @"C:\Documents and Settings";
                        //Create a new subfolder under the current active folder
                        string newPath = System.IO.Path.Combine(activeDir, "PDF Attachments");
                        // Create a new file name.
                        string newFileName = "Attachments.pdf";
                        // Combine the new file name with the path
                        newPath = System.IO.Path.Combine(activeDir, newFileName);
                        // Create the file and write to it.
                        // REMEMBER: System.IO.File.Create will overwrite the file if it already exists.
                        //if (!System.IO.File.Exists(newPath))
                        //{
                            using (System.IO.FileStream fs = System.IO.File.Create(newPath))
                            {
                                for (byte i = 0; i < 100; i++)
                                {
                                    fs.Write(AttachmentByte, 0, AttachmentByte.Length);
                                }
                            }

and the function for converting the string to a byte:

public static byte[] StringToByteArray(string inputString)
    {
        System.Text.ASCIIEncoding encoding = new System.Text.ASCIIEncoding();
        return encoding.GetBytes(inputString);
    }

the problem is that the file is 230kb, but when i write it the i only get 2kb.

is there something i am doing wrong?

[nukefusion]

If I was going to store a binary file within a database field I would probably open the reader in SequentialAccess mode, use the SqlDataReader.GetBytes() method to retrieve the binary data into a buffer and a BinaryWriter object to write it down to the file stream. I've done this a couple of times before, albeit some time ago.

You may have better results going down that route as when attempting to convert binary to strings and back again you can come across all sorts of encoding issues.

You also seem to have something weird going on there with your FOR loop - the iteration seems unneccesary. I've cobbled together a rough code sample to give you an idea of what I mean, although be warned I haven't had time to test it, however it should give you an idea of how to go about it.

SqlCommand command = new SqlCommand("SELECT Attachment FROM MyDBTable WHERE ID = 1", myConnection);
SqlDataReader reader = command.ExecuteReader(System.Data.CommandBehavior.SequentialAccess);
while (reader.Read())
{
    FileStream fileStream = new FileStream("myBinaryFile.dat", FileMode.OpenOrCreate, FileAccess.Write);
    BinaryWriter binaryWriter = new BinaryWriter(fileStream);
    long startIndex = 0;
    short bufferSize = 256;
    long bytesLeft = bufferSize;
    short bytesToRead = bufferSize;
    byte[] outputBuffer = new byte[bufferSize];
 
    // Write bytes into the buffer
    do
    {
        // Read the next set of bytes
        bytesLeft = reader.GetBytes(reader.GetOrdinal("Attachment"), startIndex, outputBuffer, 0, bytesToRead);
        // Write what we've got to the file
        binaryWriter.Write(outputBuffer);
        binaryWriter.Flush();
        // Increment the marker position in the database field
        startIndex += bytesToRead;
        // Work out how many bytes to read next iteration
        bytesToRead = (short)Math.Min(bytesLeft, bufferSize);
 
    } while (bytesLeft > 0);
 
    binaryWriter.Close();
    fileStream.Close();
}