VB.NET Core Classes in a Nutshell

Name

BinaryReader

Synopsis

This class allows you to read data from a Stream. When using a BinaryReader, the data represented by a Stream is regarded as a binary format, and bits are merely read from the stream and copied into the appropriate types. The methods prefixed with Read() allow you to grab data of a specific type from the front of the Stream and advance the current position. The next table shows how many bytes each of these methods reads in from a stream.

Method	Bytes read
Read	variable
ReadBoolean	1
ReadByte	1
ReadBytes	variable
ReadChar	2
ReadChars	variable
ReadDecimal	16
ReadDouble	8
ReadInt16	2
ReadInt32	4
ReadInt64	8
ReadSByte	1
ReadSingle	4
ReadString	variable
ReadUInt16	2
ReadUInt32	4
ReadUInt64	8

ReadString() uses the current encoding of the BinaryReader, which can be set when you call the constructor. Strings are prefixed with their length. PeekChar() allows you to look at the first character of a stream (a System.Char, which is two bytes) without advancing the position of the Stream. Because a binary reader may hold on to resources that should be freed when not needed, the BinaryReader must be closed using Close() or by calling the protected Dispose() method to do the cleanup.

Public Class BinaryReader : Implements IDisposable
' Public Constructors
   Public Sub New( ByVal input As Stream) 
   Public Sub New(ByVal input As Stream, 
        ByVal encoding As System.Text.Encoding) 
' Public Instance Properties
   Overridable Public ReadOnly Property BaseStream As Stream  
' Public Instance ...