Write csv file at server-side, and send it to silverlight client via WCF RIA Services

Question

I have created csv file at server-side. Now I want to send it to my silverlight client via WCF RIA Services. I created the following:

public byte[] GetMyCSV()
{
  string file = @"c:\test.csv";
  using (StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(file, true, Encoding.GetEncoding(932)))
  {
    //write csv file content
    ...
  }

  ???
}

Should my service send byte array? If then how to get byte array from StreamWriter?

Answer 1

First of, the StreamWriter class if for writing to a file. As long as i understand your question you want to read from the File.

The easiest way to read all bytes from a file is to use the File class and the ReadAllBytes method.

public byte[] GetMyCSV(){
  string file = @"c:\test.csv";
  bytes[] fileBytes;

  using (var fileStream = File.OpenRead(file))  {
    fileBytes = fileStream.ReadAllBytes();
  }

  return fileBytes;
}

The other way is to use the StreamReader class, to read blocks of bytes from the file and to define additional encodings for reading.