C# 0 The Complete Reference

The Character Stream Wrapper Classes

To create a character stream, wrap a byte stream inside one of the character stream 

wrappers. At the top of the character stream hierarchy are the abstract classes 

TextReader

and

TextWriter

.

TextReader

 handles input and 

TextWriter

 handles output. The methods 

defined by these two abstract classes are available to all of their subclasses. Thus, they form 

a minimal set of I/O functions that all character streams will have.

Method

Description

bool CanRead

This proper ty is true if the stream can be read. This proper ty is read-only.

bool CanSeek

This proper ty is true if the stream suppor ts position requests. This proper ty is 

read-only.

bool CanTimeout

This proper ty is true if the stream can time out. This proper ty is read-only. 

bool CanWrite

This proper ty is true if the stream can be written. This proper ty is read-only.

long Length

This proper ty contains the length of the stream. This proper ty is read-only.

long Position

This proper ty represents the current position of the stream. This proper ty is 

read/write.

int ReadTimeout

This proper ty represents the length of time before a time-out will occur for 

read operations. This proper ty is read/write. 

int WriteTimeout

This proper ty represents the length of time before a time-out will occur for 

write operations. This proper ty is read/write. 

T

ABLE

 14-2 

The Proper ties Defi ned by 

Stream

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Table 14-3 shows the input methods in