How to convert blob data to string?

Question

I am using the following function to convert binary data to text:

public string BinaryToText(byte[] data)
{
     MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream(data);
     StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(stream, encoding.UTF8);
     string text = reader.ReadTod();
     return text;
}

But I get an OutOfMemoryException for 30Mb data.

How can I solve this problem and convert data larger than 100Mb, using this or any better method?

If that data isn't really UTF8, then what you're doing is wrong anyway! Is the original data really UTF8? — Matthew Watson, Jan 14 '13 at 14:27
possible duplicate http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1003275/byte-to-string-in-c-sharp — शेखर, Jan 14 '13 at 14:53
If you data is UTF8 then use System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString — शेखर, Jan 14 '13 at 14:55

Matthew Watson · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-14T18:50:41.870

Try this instead:

public string BinaryToText(byte[] data)
{
    return Encoding.UTF8.GetString(data);
}

It will consume less memory. If it still runs out of memory, you'll need to read it in chunks - but how you are using the data will determine if that is possible. What are you doing with the returned string?

Also I will reiterate my earlier question: Is the input data really UTF8 data?

If you can handle the data being returned as multiple strings, you can do something like this:

public IEnumerable<string> BinaryToStrings(byte[] data, int maxStringLength)
{
    var buffer = new char[maxStringLength];

    using (MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream(data))
    using (StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(stream, Encoding.UTF8))
    {
        while (true)
        {
            int count = reader.Read(buffer, 0, maxStringLength);

            if (count == 0)
            {
                break;
            }

            yield return new string(buffer, 0, count);
        }
    }
}

Then you can call that in a foreach loop like so:

foreach (string chunk in BinaryToStrings(data, 1024))
{
    // Do something with 'chunk'...
}

How to convert blob data to string?

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