FileStream.WriteByte(Byte) Method

Definition

Writes a byte to the current position in the file stream.

C#
public override void WriteByte (byte value);

Parameters

value
Byte

A byte to write to the stream.

Exceptions

The stream is closed.

The stream does not support writing.

.NET 8 and later versions: The underlying pipe is closed or disconnected.

Examples

The following code example shows how to write data to a file, byte by byte, and then verify that the data was written correctly.

C#
using System;
using System.IO;

class FStream
{
    static void Main()
    {
        const string fileName = "Test#@@#.dat";

        // Create random data to write to the file.
        byte[] dataArray = new byte[100000];
        new Random().NextBytes(dataArray);

        using(FileStream
            fileStream = new FileStream(fileName, FileMode.Create))
        {
            // Write the data to the file, byte by byte.
            for(int i = 0; i < dataArray.Length; i++)
            {
                fileStream.WriteByte(dataArray[i]);
            }

            // Set the stream position to the beginning of the file.
            fileStream.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin);

            // Read and verify the data.
            for(int i = 0; i < fileStream.Length; i++)
            {
                if(dataArray[i] != fileStream.ReadByte())
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("Error writing data.");
                    return;
                }
            }
            Console.WriteLine("The data was written to {0} " +
                "and verified.", fileStream.Name);
        }
    }
}

Remarks

This method overrides WriteByte.

Use WriteByte to write a byte to a FileStream efficiently. If the stream is closed or not writable, an exception will be thrown.

Note

Use the CanWrite property to determine whether the current instance supports writing. For additional information, see CanWrite.

Notes to Inheritors

The default implementation on Stream creates a new single-byte array and then calls Write(Byte[], Int32, Int32). While this is formally correct, it is inefficient. Any stream with an internal buffer should override this method and provide a much more efficient version that reads the buffer directly, avoiding the extra array allocation on every call.

For a list of common file and directory operations, see Common I/O Tasks.

Applies to

Product Versions
.NET Core 1.0, Core 1.1, Core 2.0, Core 2.1, Core 2.2, Core 3.0, Core 3.1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
.NET Framework 1.1, 2.0, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, 4.5.1, 4.5.2, 4.6, 4.6.1, 4.6.2, 4.7, 4.7.1, 4.7.2, 4.8, 4.8.1
.NET Standard 1.3, 1.4, 1.6, 2.0, 2.1
UWP 10.0

See also