C# StringWriter Class

The StringWriter class in C# is a derived class of the TextWriter abstract class. It is used to write characters to a string in a specific format. It provides a convenient way to collect output generated by methods that write to a TextWriter, such as the Write and WriteLine methods.

The StringWriter class is part of the System.IO namespace and is commonly used for capturing text output from methods that expect a TextWriter object. It inherits various methods and properties from the TextWriter class, such as Write, WriteLine, Flush, and Close.

Here’s an example that demonstrates the usage of the StringWriter class:

using System;
using System.IO;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        // Create a StringWriter
        StringWriter stringWriter = new StringWriter();

        // Write some data to the StringWriter
        stringWriter.WriteLine("Hello");
        stringWriter.WriteLine("World!");

        // Get the accumulated string from the StringWriter
        string output = stringWriter.ToString();

        // Close the StringWriter
        stringWriter.Close();

        // Display the output
        Console.WriteLine(output);
    }
}

In the above example, we create a StringWriter object named stringWriter. We then write some data to it using the WriteLine method. After that, we retrieve the accumulated string using the ToString method. Finally, we close the StringWriter and display the output on the console.

The StringWriter class is particularly useful when you need to capture text output and manipulate it as a string, for example, when working with XML or generating dynamic templates.

C# StringWriter Constructors:

The StringWriter class in C# has the following constructor and key members:

Constructor:

public StringWriter()
  • Initializes a new instance of the StringWriter class.

Properties:

public override Encoding Encoding { get; }
  • Gets the encoding used by the current instance of StringWriter.

Methods:

public override void Close()

Closes the current StringWriter and releases any system resources associated with it.

protected override void Dispose(bool disposing)

Releases the unmanaged resources used by the StringWriter and optionally releases the managed resources.

public override void Flush()

Clears all buffers for the current writer and causes any buffered data to be written to the underlying string.

public override string ToString()

Returns the accumulated string value.

public override void Write(char value)

Writes a character to the underlying string.

public override void Write(string value)

Writes a string to the underlying string.

public override void WriteLine()

Writes a line terminator to the underlying string.

public override void WriteLine(string value)
  • Writes a string followed by a line terminator to the underlying string.

These are some of the commonly used members of the StringWriter class. The class also inherits additional members from its base class, TextWriter, which provide more writing and formatting functionalities.

C# StringWriter Properties:

The StringWriter class in C# inherits properties from its base class, TextWriter, and also defines some of its own properties. Here are the properties specific to the StringWriter class:

1. Encoding:

public override Encoding Encoding { get; }

Gets the encoding used by the current instance of StringWriter.

    • This property returns the encoding associated with the StringWriter instance. Since StringWriter writes to a string, the encoding will typically be UTF-16.

As StringWriter derives from TextWriter, it also inherits the following important properties:

  1. FormatProvider:
public virtual IFormatProvider FormatProvider { get; }

Gets an object that controls formatting.

    • This property returns the IFormatProvider implementation used for formatting operations performed by the writer.
  1. NewLine:
public virtual string NewLine { get; set; }

Gets or sets the line terminator string used by the current TextWriter.

    • This property allows you to get or set the line terminator string that is used when writing a new line with methods like WriteLine().

Please note that the StringWriter class does not provide any additional properties beyond those inherited from TextWriter.

C# StringWriter Methods:

The StringWriter class in C# inherits methods from its base class, TextWriter, and also defines some of its own methods. Here are the methods specific to the StringWriter class:

  1. Close:

public override void Close()

Closes the current StringWriter and releases any system resources associated with it.

    • This method also calls the Dispose method.
  1. Dispose:

protected override void Dispose(bool disposing)

Releases the unmanaged resources used by the StringWriter and optionally releases the managed resources.

    • This method is called by the Close method and the object’s finalizer.
    • 3. Flush:

public override void Flush()

Clears all buffers for the current writer and causes any buffered data to be written to the underlying string.

    • This method ensures that any buffered data is written to the underlying string.
    • 4. ToString:

public override string ToString()

Returns the accumulated string value.

    • This method returns the underlying string that has been written to using the Write and WriteLine methods.

The StringWriter class also inherits various other methods from the TextWriter base class, which include:

  • Methods for writing characters: Write(char), Write(char[]), Write(char[], int, int).
  • Methods for writing strings: Write(string), Write(string[]), Write(string, object[]).
  • Methods for writing formatted output: Write(string, object), Write(string, object[]), WriteFormat(string, object[]).
  • Methods for writing lines: WriteLine(), WriteLine(char), WriteLine(string), WriteLine(string, object[]).

These methods allow you to write characters, strings, and formatted output to the underlying string in a similar way as writing to other TextWriter implementations.

Remember that the StringWriter class inherits these methods from TextWriter, and they provide the core functionality for writing text to a string.

C# StringWriter Example:

Certainly! Here’s an example that demonstrates the usage of the StringWriter class in C#:

using System;
using System.IO;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        // Create a StringWriter
        StringWriter stringWriter = new StringWriter();

        // Write some data to the StringWriter
        stringWriter.WriteLine("Hello");
        stringWriter.WriteLine("World!");

        // Get the accumulated string from the StringWriter
        string output = stringWriter.ToString();

        // Close the StringWriter
        stringWriter.Close();

        // Display the output
        Console.WriteLine(output);
    }
}

In this example, we create a StringWriter object named stringWriter. We then use the WriteLine method to write the strings “Hello” and “World!” to the StringWriter. The WriteLine method appends a new line after each string.

After writing the data, we use the ToString method to retrieve the accumulated string from the StringWriter. This method returns the complete string that has been written to the StringWriter.

Finally, we close the StringWriter using the Close method to release any system resources associated with it. We display the output string on the console using Console.WriteLine.

When you run this code, the output will be:

Hello
World!

The StringWriter class provides a convenient way to capture text output and manipulate it as a string, which can be useful in various scenarios such as generating dynamic templates, capturing XML or JSON data, or performing string operations on the collected output.