One of my previous articles, “Accessing Files and Directories,” covered how to get file and directory properties in the 1.0 and 1.1 versions of the .NET Framework. This article serves as a sequel of sorts, focusing on the I/O enhancements in the .NET Framework 2.0 release due out later this year. Specifically, it demonstrates reading and writing compressed data with the new System.IO.Compression namespace.
System.IO.Compression
The System.IO.Compression namespace introduces a series of classes that provide compression and decompression capabilities. The classes exhibit similar behaviors and characteristics, but the compression classes operate against streams. To my knowledge, the .NET Framework 2.0 will include two algorithms for compression/decompression: Deflate and GZip.
Sample Code to Compress a File
The following sample code reads the contents of a file, compresses it, and then writes it to an output file. It should clearly demonstrate how easy it is to add compression capabilities into your applications:
FileStream inputFile = null;GZipStream compressedZipStream = null;try{ // Open and read the contents of the file inputFile = new FileStream("c:mylog.txt", FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.Read); byte[] buffer = new byte[inputFile.Length]; int count = inputFile.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length); inputFile.Close(); // Compress the file contents by writing them to a memory stream MemoryStream memoryBuffer = new MemoryStream(); compressedZipStream = new GZipStream(memoryBuffer, CompressionMode.Compress, true); compressedZipStream.Write(buffer, 0, buffer.Length); compressedZipStream.Close(); Console.WriteLine("Original Size: {0}, Compressed Size: {1}", buffer.Length, memoryBuffer.Length); // Pause so we can see the output Console.ReadLine();}finally{ if (inputFile != null) inputFile.Close(); if (compressedZipStream!= null) compressedZipStream.Close();}
I created a file named mylog.txt. I then typed in the well known test phrase “The quick brown fox jumped over the slow lazy dog.” into the file about thirty times. I use files for the examples, but you could just as easily use any other sort of stream.
Figure 1. File Compression
Note: The examples here are all with the GZipStream class, which you could just as easily swap out for the DeflateStream class.
Sample Code to Decompress a File
The following sample code reads the contents of a file, decompresses it, and then writes it to the console. It relies on the file created in the prior sample:
FileStream inputFile = null;GZipStream compressedZipStream = null;try{ // Determine the uncompressed size of the file; // we can't rely on the compressed size because // it's not the true size inputFile = new FileStream("c:mylogcompressed.txt", FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.Read); compressedZipStream = new GZipStream(inputFile, CompressionMode.Decompress); int offset = 0; int totalBytes = 0; byte[] smallBuffer = new byte[100]; while (true) { int bytesRead = compressedZipStream.Read(smallBuffer, 0, 100); if (bytesRead == 0) { break; } offset += bytesRead; totalBytes += bytesRead; } compressedZipStream.Close(); // Open and read the contents of the file now that // we know the uncompressed size inputFile = new FileStream("c:mylogcompressed.txt", FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.Read); // Decompress the file contents compressedZipStream = new GZipStream(inputFile, CompressionMode.Decompress); byte[] buffer = new byte[totalBytes]; compressedZipStream.Read(buffer, 0, totalBytes); // Display the decompression information Console.WriteLine(System.Text.Encoding.UTF7.GetString(buffer)); Console.WriteLine("Compressed Size: {0}, Decompressed Size: {1}", inputFile.Length, buffer.Length); compressedZipStream.Close(); // Pause so we can see the output Console.ReadLine();}finally{ if (inputFile != null) inputFile.Close(); if (compressedZipStream != null) compressedZipStream.Close();}
Decompression is more complex because of the way the Read method works. Because the file is compressed, there is no way to know how much data to read. You can approach this in a number of ways. For this sample code, I added code up front to determine the size of the file first. This results in the file being read twice, which is not ideal.
Figure 2. File Decompression
Compression and Decompression Classes
You have received a sneak preview of the compression and decompression classes that are coming in the .NET Framework 2.0, due out later in the year. The simplicity of the examples demonstrates how easy it will be for you to use the functionality within your applications.
Future Columns
The topic of the next column will be the serialization enhancements in .NET Framework 2.0. If you have something in particular that you would like to see explained here, contact me at mstrawmyer@crowechizek.com.
About the Author
Mark Strawmyer, MCSD, MCSE, MCDBA is a Senior Architect of .NET applications for large and mid-size organizations. Mark is a technology leader with Crowe Chizek in Indianapolis, Indiana. He specializes in architecture, design, and development of Microsoft-based solutions. Mark was honored to be named a Microsoft MVP for application development with C# for the second year in a row. You can reach Mark at mstrawmyer@crowechizek.com.
