String stream in .NET???

[Guest]

Hey there,

I need a string stream, but I can't find one in .NET. I thought StringWriter
would derive from Stream, alas it doesn't do so.

Which leads me to my next question: What is the purpose of
System.IO.StringWriter (or, what is its added value)??? It can do the same
things with StringBuilder, and I see no added value.

The reason why I need the string stream, is that I have a library that knows
how to serialize certain library objects to a System.IO.Stream. My intent is
to serialize to a string, but I cannot do that with the current interface.

I do know that there is a memory stream. But my other string ouput methods
use StringBuilder..., not any preallocated byte buffer.

What I would prefer, is a StringStream class that derives from Stream, and
takes a StringBuilder as scratch-pad.

Any comment is welcome.

Thanks,

 

[Jay B. Harlow [MVP - Outlook]]

Tom,

Which leads me to my next question: What is the purpose of
System.IO.StringWriter (or, what is its added value)???

StringWriter inherits from TextWriter, it can be used any place a TextWriter
can be used. Creating functions that expect a TextWriter allows you to write
to either a Stream or a String...

The reason why I need the string stream, is that I have a library that
knows
how to serialize certain library objects to a System.IO.Stream. My intent
is
to serialize to a string, but I cannot do that with the current interface.

Remember that a String is a series of Unicode Chars (16 bit values). While a
Stream is a series of Bytes (8 bit values).

What I would prefer, is a StringStream class that derives from Stream, and
takes a StringBuilder as scratch-pad.

You could define one, however I wonder how well the encoding
(System.Text.Encoding) would work, as a series of Bytes is not necessarily
in any specific encoding, in fact a series of Bytes may be in multiple
encodings!

I do know that there is a memory stream. But my other string ouput methods
use StringBuilder..., not any preallocated byte buffer.

A Memory stream does not need to be preallocated, it can dynamically grow
just as a StringBuilder.


I would recommend using the MemoryStream when I wanted to serialize to
memory...

Hope this helps
Jay

 

[Guest]

Hi Jay,

Thanks for the response.

What should I do to get a string if I would serialize to a MemoryStream?
I've tried:

string s = encoding.GetString( ms.GetBuffer(), 0, (int) ms.Length );

but all that comes out is crap. I've tried ASCIIEncoding and UTF8 and UTF7.
I guess there is no good way...

Thanks,
Tom.

 

[Jay B. Harlow [MVP - Outlook]]

Tom,

but all that comes out is crap.

That's what I would expect you will see. As serialization to a stream is
more then likely Binary serialization. Binary serialization has no really
textual representation.

TextWriter (along with its descendents StringWriter & StreamWriter) are used
to create textual representation of objects. If you are writing to a Stream
this "Textual Representation" cannot magically happen by simply using a
StringWriter...

What should I do to get a string if I would serialize to a MemoryStream?

What are you expecting the string to look like? A String is text that people
can read, a Stream is bytes that people cannot read (well people can read
them, but they tend to have all sorts of funny characters in random order).

Hope this helps
Jay

 

[Guest]

Jay,

Thank you for sharing your insight. I now have a clearer view. The
serialization methods in the library were indeed for binary serialization and
not for string serialization.

I had to write my own string serialization routine.

Perhaps I made a mistake in comparing the use of std::stringstream in C++ to
streams in general.

Thank you,
Tom Tempelaere.