FileSystem.ReadAllBytes(String) Method

Definition

Namespace:

Microsoft.VisualBasic.FileIO

Assembly:

Microsoft.VisualBasic.Core.dll

Source:

FileSystem.vb

Returns the contents of a file as a byte array.

public:
 static cli::array <System::Byte> ^ ReadAllBytes(System::String ^ file);

public static byte[] ReadAllBytes (string file);

static member ReadAllBytes : string -> byte[]

Public Shared Function ReadAllBytes (file As String) As Byte()

Parameters

file

String

File to be read.

Returns

Byte[]

Byte array containing the contents of the file.

Exceptions

ArgumentException

The path is not valid for one of the following reasons: it is a zero-length string; it contains only white space; it contains invalid characters; or it is a device path (starts with \\.\); it ends with a trailing slash.

ArgumentNullException

file is Nothing.

FileNotFoundException

The file does not exist.

IOException

The file is in use by another process, or an I/O error occurs.

PathTooLongException

The path exceeds the system-defined maximum length.

NotSupportedException

A file or directory name in the path contains a colon (:) or is in an invalid format.

OutOfMemoryException

There is not enough memory to write the string to buffer.

SecurityException

The user lacks necessary permissions to view the path.

Examples

This example reads from the file C:/Documents and Settings/selfportrait.jpg.

My.Computer.FileSystem.ReadAllBytes(
  "C:/Documents and Settings/selfportrait.jpg")

Remarks

The ReadAllBytes method of the My.Computer.FileSystem object allows you to read from a binary file. The contents of the file are returned as a byte array.

Do not make decisions about the contents of the file based on the name of the file. For example, the file Form1.vb may not be a Visual Basic source file. Verify all inputs before using the data in your application.

The following table lists an example of a task involving the My.Computer.FileSystem.ReadAllBytes method.

To	See
Read from a binary file	How to: Read From Binary Files in Visual Basic