How to read a file from internet?

Question

simple question: I have an file online (txt). How to read it and check if its there? (C#.net 2.0)

score 85 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 20 '11 at 15:24

85

I think the WebClient-class is appropriate for that:

WebClient client = new WebClient();
Stream stream = client.OpenRead("http://yoururl/test.txt");
StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(stream);
String content = reader.ReadToEnd();

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.net.webclient.openread.aspx

edited Jun 20 '11 at 15:24

Paul DelRe

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answered Mar 18 '10 at 15:52

Pbirkoff

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Could you fill in the prerequisites for this? I'm getting `The type or namespace name 'WebClient' could not be found` – jbyrd Feb 27 '18 at 19:33
WebClient can be found in System.Net - a quick Google for "dotnet WebClient" usually turns up the Microsoft reference page which tells you the hierarchy. – Magnus Smith Mar 22 '21 at 08:50

score 22 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 18 '10 at 15:50

from http://www.csharp-station.com/HowTo/HttpWebFetch.aspx

    HttpWebRequest  request  = (HttpWebRequest)
        WebRequest.Create("myurl");

        // execute the request
        HttpWebResponse response = (HttpWebResponse)
            request.GetResponse();
            // we will read data via the response stream
        Stream resStream = response.GetResponseStream();
    string tempString = null;
    int    count      = 0;

    do
    {
        // fill the buffer with data
        count = resStream.Read(buf, 0, buf.Length);

        // make sure we read some data
        if (count != 0)
        {
            // translate from bytes to ASCII text
            tempString = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(buf, 0, count);

            // continue building the string
            sb.Append(tempString);
        }
    }
    while (count > 0); // any more data to read?

    // print out page source
    Console.WriteLine(sb.ToString());

Nowadays it's _much_ simpler: just instantiate a `WebClient` and call `DownloadString` on it. — Matt Tsōnto, Mar 20 '16 at 19:34
Where do the variables `sb` and `buf` come from? Also the link is dead now. — jbyrd, Feb 27 '18 at 19:38

score 10 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 30 '17 at 14:11

10

A little bit easier way:

string fileContent = new WebClient().DownloadString("yourURL");

answered Aug 30 '17 at 14:11

daniell89

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`WebClient` is obsolete. Use `HttpCLient` instead. – ADM-IT May 14 '22 at 10:17

score 8 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 13 '13 at 15:40

8

First, you can download the binary file:

public byte[] GetFileViaHttp(string url)
{
    using (WebClient client = new WebClient())
    {
        return client.DownloadData(url);
    }
}

Then you can make array of strings for text file (assuming UTF-8 and that it is a text file):

var result = GetFileViaHttp(@"http://example.com/index.html");
string str = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(result);
string[] strArr = str.Split(new[] { "\r\n" }, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);

You'll receive every (except empty) line of text in every array field.

answered Dec 13 '13 at 15:40

pbies

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This is for Windows line ending encoding. If you wish to split lines for Linux use "\n". – pbies Jul 28 '16 at 16:40
better to use new string[] { Environment.NewLine } for generic soltuion – Wajdy Essam Apr 17 '22 at 22:43

score 4 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 18 '10 at 15:52

an alternative to HttpWebRequest is WebClient

    // create a new instance of WebClient
    WebClient client = new WebClient();

    // set the user agent to IE6
    client.Headers.Add("user-agent", "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.0.3705;)");
    try
    {
        // actually execute the GET request
        string ret = client.DownloadString("http://www.google.com/");

        // ret now contains the contents of the webpage
        Console.WriteLine("First 256 bytes of response: " + ret.Substring(0,265));
    }
    catch (WebException we)
    {
        // WebException.Status holds useful information
        Console.WriteLine(we.Message + "\n" + we.Status.ToString());
    }
    catch (NotSupportedException ne)
    {
        // other errors
        Console.WriteLine(ne.Message);
    }

example from http://www.daveamenta.com/2008-05/c-webclient-usage/

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Aug 19 '19 at 16:05

This is too much easier:

using System.Net;
using System.IO;

...

    using (WebClient client = new WebClient()) {
        //... client.options
        Stream stream = client.OpenRead("http://.........");
        using (StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(stream)) {
            string content = reader.ReadToEnd();
        }
    }

"WebClient" and "StreamReader" are disposables. The content of file will be into "content" var.

The client var contains several configuration options.

The default configuration could be called as:

string content = new WebClient().DownloadString("http://.........");

score -2 · Answer 7 · edited Feb 01 '18 at 07:10

-2

Look at System.Net.WebClient, the docs even have an example of retrieving the file.

But testing if the file exists implies asking for the file and catching the exception if it's not there.

edited Feb 01 '18 at 07:10

TotPeRo

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answered Mar 18 '10 at 15:51

Timores

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How to read a file from internet?

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