BinaryReader in c# reads '\0' between all characters of a string

Question

I am trying to write and read a binary file using c# BinaryWriter and BinaryReader classes. When I am storing a string in file, it is storing it properly, but when I am trying to read it is returning a string which has '\0' character on every alternate place within the string.

Here is the code:

 public void writeBinary(BinaryWriter bw)
 {
     bw.Write("Hello");
 }

 public void readBinary(BinaryReader br)
 {
     BinaryReader br = new BinaryReader(fs);
     String s;
     s = br.ReadString();
  }

Here s is getting value as = "H\0e\0l\0l\0o\0".

Answer 1

You are using different encodings when reading and writing the file.

You are using UTF-16 when writing the file, so each character ends up as a 16 bit character code, i.e. two bytes.

You are using UTF-8 or some of the 8-bit encodings when reading the file, so each byte will end up as one character.

Pick one encoding and use for both reading and writing the file.