Question Binaryreader - Reading to end of file?

Adagio

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 12, 2005
Messages
162
Programming Experience
Beginner
I have tried to create a method for writing information from an instance of a class to a binary file. The code works fine, the only problem is finding the end of the file. After it has read the last value that should be read, the basestream.Length is still higher than basestream.Position (by a random number)
In my case I have created a class with two fields (name and birthday), one that is string and a date field. With my code, this should write 5 lines to the file (classname + nameofNameField + StringValue + nameOfBirthdayField + DateValue)
When reading there's still more information in the file, when I have read the DateValue. Why? How do I find if it has read the end of the file?

VB.NET:
Imports System.Reflection
Imports System.IO

Public Module BugHunter

    Public Sub Write(ByVal c As Object)
        Dim fields As FieldInfo() = c.GetType.GetFields(BindingFlags.IgnoreCase Or BindingFlags.Public Or BindingFlags.Instance Or BindingFlags.NonPublic)
        Dim fs As System.IO.FileStream
        Dim w As System.IO.BinaryWriter

        ' Opens or creates the file to write to

        fs = New System.IO.FileStream("C:\Temp\test.cls", IO.FileMode.OpenOrCreate)
        w = New System.IO.BinaryWriter(fs, System.Text.Encoding.UTF8)
        w.Seek(0, System.IO.SeekOrigin.Begin)

        ' Writes class name

        w.Write(c.GetType.FullName)

        For Each f As FieldInfo In fields
            ' Gets the value of the field

            Dim val As Object = f.GetValue(c)

            ' Writes the name of the field

            w.Write(f.Name)

            ' If the value is of date, write number of ticks. Not possible to read date

            If TypeOf val Is Date Then
                Dim d As Date = DirectCast(f.GetValue(c), Date)
                w.Write(d.Ticks)
            Else
                w.Write(f.GetValue(c))
            End If
        Next

        ' Close the file

        w.Close()
        fs.Close()
    End Sub

    Public Function Read() As Object
        ' Open file for reading

        Dim f As New System.IO.FileStream("C:\Temp\test.cls", IO.FileMode.Open, IO.FileAccess.Read)
        Dim reader As BinaryReader = New BinaryReader(f, System.Text.Encoding.UTF8)

        ' Gets type of class and create new instance

        Dim nameOfClass As String = reader.ReadString
        Dim obj As Object

        obj = [Assembly].GetEntryAssembly.CreateInstance(nameOfClass)

        ' Read until end of file

        While reader.BaseStream.Position < reader.BaseStream.Length

            ' Read field name

            Dim nameOfField As String = reader.ReadString

            ' Get field info

            Dim field As FieldInfo = obj.GetType.GetField(nameOfField, BindingFlags.IgnoreCase Or BindingFlags.Public Or BindingFlags.Instance Or BindingFlags.NonPublic)

            ' Reads value based on field type

            If field.FieldType Is GetType(String) Then
                field.SetValue(obj, reader.ReadString)
            ElseIf field.FieldType Is GetType(Date) Then
                Dim tmp As Int64 = reader.ReadInt64()
                field.SetValue(obj, New Date(tmp))
            Else
                MsgBox("Currently unsupported")
            End If
        End While

        ' Closes the file

        f.Close()
        reader.Close()

        ' Returns the new object

        Return obj
    End Function

End Module
 
Seems like the problem is Windows 7. When I copied the code to my Vista computer everything works fine... that's bad :(
 
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