CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#.net-3.5
gcso
gcso

Reputation: 2345

Can I convert a file to a byte array then save the byte array to a file keeping its properties?

Is it possible to convert a file to a byte array and save it at a later time while keeping all of its properties (name, type, etc)?

I'm reading email attachments and saving the bytes for future use. Issue with this is I don't know how to determine what file extension I need to use when saving the file.

If not what are the alternatives?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 476

Answers (3)

Sam Axe
Sam Axe

Reputation: 33738

name, attributes, timestamps, etc are all meta data of the file and not part of the file contents.. so you need a container format.. You could use XML, or MIME messages, or any encapsulation scheme you desire.

Upvotes: 2

Reed Copsey
Reed Copsey

Reputation: 564323

You will need to store the properties, as well. If the byte array is merely the contents of the file, the properties would be lost.

You could, easily enough, just store all of the above information together. A single serializable class with the byte[] data and all relevant properties could be serialized into a byte array and used, for example.

Upvotes: 1

SLaks
SLaks

Reputation: 887195

You need to store the filename (a string) along with its contents.

Upvotes: 1

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