How to: Read a Binary File (C++/CLI)

The following code example demonstrates reading binary data from a file. Two classes from the System.IO namespace are used: FileStream and BinaryReader. FileStream represents the actual file. BinaryReader provides an interface to the stream that allows binary access.

The following code example uses a file created by the code in How to: Write a Binary File (C++/CLI) called data.bin.

Example

// binary_read.cpp
// compile with: /clr
#using<system.dll>
using namespace System;
using namespace System::IO;

int main() 
{
   String^ fileName = "data.bin";
   try
   {
      FileStream^ fs = gcnew FileStream(fileName, FileMode::Open);
      BinaryReader^ br = gcnew BinaryReader(fs);

      Console::WriteLine("contents of {0}:", fileName);
      while (br->BaseStream->Position < br->BaseStream->Length)
         Console::WriteLine(br->ReadInt32().ToString());

      fs->Close( );
   }
   catch (Exception^ e)
   {
      if (dynamic_cast<FileNotFoundException^>(e))
         Console::WriteLine("File '{0}' not found", fileName);
      else
         Console::WriteLine("Exception: ({0})", e);
      return -1;
   }
   return 0;
}

See Also

Other Resources

File and Stream I/O

.NET Programming Guide