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How to use "using" statement in a controller that returns a File? [duplicate]

My question is similar to this question:
Does File() In asp.net mvc close the stream?
I have the follows in C# MVC 4.
FileStream fs = new FileStream(pathToFileOnDisk, FileMode.Open);
FileStreamResult fsResult = new FileStreamResult(fs, "Text");
return fsResult;
Will fs be closed automatically by FileStreamResult? thanks!

Yes. It uses a using block around the stream, and that ensures that the resource will dispose.
Here is the internal implementation of the FileStreamResult WriteFile method:
protected override void WriteFile(HttpResponseBase response)
{
// grab chunks of data and write to the output stream
Stream outputStream = response.OutputStream;
using (FileStream)
{
byte[] buffer = new byte[BufferSize];
while (true)
{
int bytesRead = FileStream.Read(buffer, 0, BufferSize);
if (bytesRead == 0)
{
// no more data
break;
}
outputStream.Write(buffer, 0, bytesRead);
}
}
}

Return stream reader from FTP response is good practice or not

I have a method for FTP download file, but I do not save file locally rather I parse the file in memory through ftp response. My question is, is returning stream reader after getting ftp response stream a good practice? Because do not want to do parsing and other stuff in the same method.
var uri = new Uri(string.Format("ftp://{0}/{1}/{2}", "somevalue", remotefolderpath, remotefilename));
var request = (FtpWebRequest)FtpWebRequest.Create(uri);
request.Credentials = new NetworkCredential(userName, password);
request.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.DownloadFile;
var ftpResponse = (FtpWebResponse)request.GetResponse();
/* Get the FTP Server's Response Stream */
ftpStream = ftpResponse.GetResponseStream();
return responseStream = new StreamReader(ftpStream);

For me there are 2 disadvantages of using the stream directly, if you can live with them, you shouldn't waste memory or disk space.
In this stream you can not seek to a specific position, you can only read the contents as it comes in;
Your internet connection could suddenly drop and you will get an exception while parsing and processing your file, either split the parsing and processing or make sure your processing routine can handle the case that a file is processed for a second time (after a failure halfway through the first attempt).
To work around these issues, you could copy the stream to a MemoryStream:
using (var ftpStream = ftpResponse.GetResponseStream())
{
var memoryStream = new MemoryStream()
while ((bytesRead = ftpStream.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length)) > 0)
{
memoryStream.Write(buffer, 0, bytesRead);
}
memoryStream.Flush();
memoryStream.Position = 0;
return memoryStream;
}
If you are working with larger files I prefer writing it to a file, this way you minimize the memory footprint of your application:
using (var ftpStream = ftpResponse.GetResponseStream())
{
var fileStream = new FileStream(Path.GetTempFileName(), FileMode.CreateNew)
while ((bytesRead = ftpStream.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length)) > 0)
{
fileStream.Write(buffer, 0, bytesRead);
}
fileStream.Flush();
fileStream.Position = 0;
return fileStream;
}

I see more practical returning a responseStream when you are performing an HttpWebRequest. If you are using FtpWebRequest it means you are working with files. I would read the responseStream to byte[] and return the byte file content of the downloaded file, so you can easily work with the System.IO.Fileclasses to handle the file.

Thanks Carlos it was really helpful . I just return the byte[]
byte[] buffer = new byte[16 * 1024];
using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream())
{
int read;
while ((read = ftpStream.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length)) > 0)
{
ms.Write(buffer, 0, read);
}
memoryStream=ms;
}
return memoryStream.ToArray();
and used byte[] in the method like this
public async Task ParseReport(byte[] bytesRead)
{
Stream stream = new MemoryStream(bytesRead);
using (StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(stream))
{
string line = null;
while (null != (line = reader.ReadLine()))
{
string[] values = line.Split(';');
}
}
stream.Close();
}

Write PDF stream to response stream

If I have a pdf file as a Stream, how can I write it to the response output stream?

Since you are using MVC, the best way is to use FileStreamResult:
return new FileStreamResult(stream, "application/pdf")
{
FileDownloadName = "file.pdf"
};
Playing with Response.Write or Response.OutputStream from your controller is non-idiomatic and there's no reason to write your own ActionResult when one already exists.

One way to do it is as follows:
//assuming you have your FileStream handle already - named fs
byte[] buffer = new byte[4096];
long count = 0;
while ((count = fs.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length)) > 0)
{
response.OutputStream.Write(buffer, 0, count);
response.Flush();
}
You can also use GZIP compression to speed the transfer of the file to the client (less bytes streamed).

In asp.net this is the way to download a pdf file
Dim MyFileStream As FileStream
Dim FileSize As Long
MyFileStream = New FileStream(filePath, FileMode.Open)
FileSize = MyFileStream.Length
Dim Buffer(CInt(FileSize)) As Byte
MyFileStream.Read(Buffer, 0, CInt(FileSize))
MyFileStream.Close()
Response.ContentType = "application/pdf"
Response.OutputStream.Write(Buffer, 0, FileSize)
Response.Flush()
Response.Close()

The HTTP Response is a stream exposed to you through the HttpContext.Response.OutputStream property, so if you have the PDF file in a stream you can simply copy the data from one stream to the other:
CopyStream(pdfStream, response.OutputStream);
For an implementation of CopyStream see Best way to copy between two Stream instances - C#

Please try this one:
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) {
Context.Response.Buffer = false;
FileStream inStr = null;
byte[] buffer = new byte[1024];
long byteCount; inStr = File.OpenRead(#"C:\Users\Downloads\sample.pdf");
while ((byteCount = inStr.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length)) > 0) {
if (Context.Response.IsClientConnected) {
Context.Response.ContentType = "application/pdf";
Context.Response.OutputStream.Write(buffer, 0, buffer.Length);
Context.Response.Flush();
}
}
}

Writing file from HttpWebRequest periodically vs. after download finishes?

Right now I am using this code to download files (with a Range header). Most of the files are large, and it is running 99% of CPU currently as the file downloads. Is there any way that the file can be written periodically so that it does not remain in RAM constantly?
private byte[] GetWebPageContent(string url, long start, long finish)
{
byte[] result = new byte[finish];
HttpWebRequest request;
request = WebRequest.Create(url) as HttpWebRequest;
//request.Headers.Add("Range", "bytes=" + start + "-" + finish);
request.AddRange((int)start, (int)finish);
using (WebResponse response = request.GetResponse())
{
return ReadFully(response.GetResponseStream());
}
}
public static byte[] ReadFully(Stream stream)
{
byte[] buffer = new byte[32768];
using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream())
{
while (true)
{
int read = stream.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length);
if (read <= 0)
return ms.ToArray();
ms.Write(buffer, 0, read);
}
}
}

Instead of writing the data to a MemoryStream (which stores the data in memory), write the data to a FileStream (which stores the data in a file on disk).
byte[] buffer = new byte[32768];
using (FileStream fileStream = File.Create(path))
{
while (true)
{
int read = stream.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length);
if (read <= 0)
break;
fileStream.Write(buffer, 0, read);
}
}
Using .NET 4.0:
using (FileStream fileStream = File.Create(path))
{
stream.CopyTo(fileStream);
}

How to properly serve a PDF file

I am using .NET 3.5 ASP.NET. Currently my web site serves a PDF file in the following manner:
context.Response.WriteFile(#"c:\blah\blah.pdf");
This works great. However, I'd like to serve it via the context.Response.Write(char [], int, int) method.
So I tried sending out the file via
byte [] byteContent = File.ReadAllBytes(ReportPath);
ASCIIEncoding encoding = new ASCIIEncoding();
char[] charContent = encoding.GetChars(byteContent);
context.Response.Write(charContent, 0, charContent.Length);
That did not work (e.g. browser's PDF plugin complains that the file is corrupted).
So I tried the Unicode approach:
byte [] byteContent = File.ReadAllBytes(ReportPath);
UnicodeEncoding encoding = new UnicodeEncoding();
char[] charContent = encoding.GetChars(byteContent);
context.Response.Write(charContent, 0, charContent.Length);
which also did not work.
What am I missing?

You should not convert the bytes into characters, that is why it becomes "corrupted". Even though ASCII characters are stored in bytes the actual ASCII character set is limited to 7 bits. Thus, converting a byte stream with the ASCIIEncoding will effectively remove the 8th bit from each byte.
The bytes should be written to the OutputStream stream of the Response instance.
Instead of loading all bytes from the file upfront, which could possibly consume a lot of memory, reading the file in chunks from a stream is a better approach. Here's a sample of how to read from one stream and then write to another:
void LoadStreamToStream(Stream inputStream, Stream outputStream)
{
const int bufferSize = 64 * 1024;
var buffer = new byte[bufferSize];
while (true)
{
var bytesRead = inputStream.Read(buffer, 0, bufferSize);
if (bytesRead > 0)
{
outputStream.Write(buffer, 0, bytesRead);
}
if ((bytesRead == 0) || (bytesRead < bufferSize))
break;
}
}
You can then use this method to load the contents of your file directly to the Response.OutputStream
LoadStreamToStream(fileStream, Response.OutputStream);
Better still, here's a method opening a file and loading its contents to a stream:
void LoadFileToStream(string inputFile, Stream outputStream)
{
using (var streamInput = new FileStream(inputFile, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read))
{
LoadStreamToStream(streamInput, outputStream);
streamInput.Close();
}
}

You may also need to set the ContentType by doing something like this:
Response.ContentType = "application/octet-stream";

Building upon Peter Lillevold's answer, I went and just made some extension methods for his above functions.
public static void WriteTo(this Stream inputStream, Stream outputStream)
{
const int bufferSize = 64 * 1024;
var buffer = new byte[bufferSize];
while (true)
{
var bytesRead = inputStream.Read(buffer, 0, bufferSize);
if (bytesRead > 0)
{
outputStream.Write(buffer, 0, bytesRead);
}
if ((bytesRead == 0) || (bytesRead < bufferSize)) break;
}
}
public static void WriteToFromFile(this Stream outputStream, string inputFile)
{
using (var inputStream = new FileStream(inputFile, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read))
{
inputStream.WriteTo(outputStream);
inputStream.Close();
}
}