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StreamReader.Peek Method

Definition

Namespace:
System.IO
Assemblies:
mscorlib.dll, System.IO.dll
Assemblies:
netstandard.dll, System.Runtime.dll
Assembly:
System.IO.dll
Assembly:
System.Runtime.Extensions.dll
Assembly:
mscorlib.dll
Assembly:
netstandard.dll
Source:
StreamReader.cs
Source:
StreamReader.cs
Source:
StreamReader.cs
Source:
StreamReader.cs

Returns the next available character but does not consume it.

public:
 override int Peek();
public override int Peek();
override this.Peek : unit -> int
Public Overrides Function Peek () As Integer

Returns

Int32

An integer representing the next character to be read, or -1 if there are no characters to be read or if the stream does not support seeking.

Exceptions

IOException

An I/O error occurs.

Examples

The following code example reads lines from a file until the end of the file is reached.

using System;
using System.IO;

class Test
{
    
    public static void Main()
    {
        string path = @"c:\temp\MyTest.txt";

        try
        {
            if (File.Exists(path))
            {
                File.Delete(path);
            }

            using (StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(path))
            {
                sw.WriteLine("This");
                sw.WriteLine("is some text");
                sw.WriteLine("to test");
                sw.WriteLine("Reading");
            }

            using (StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(path))
            {

                while (sr.Peek() > -1)
                {
                    Console.WriteLine(sr.ReadLine());
                }
            }
        }
        catch (Exception e)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("The process failed: {0}", e.ToString());
        }
    }
}

Imports System.IO
Imports System.Text

Public Class Test

    Public Shared Sub Main()
        Dim path As String = "c:\temp\MyTest.txt"

        Try
            If File.Exists(path) Then
                File.Delete(path)
            End If

            Dim sw As StreamWriter = New StreamWriter(path)
            sw.WriteLine("This")
            sw.WriteLine("is some text")
            sw.WriteLine("to test")
            sw.WriteLine("Reading")
            sw.Close()

            Dim sr As StreamReader = New StreamReader(path)

            Do While sr.Peek() > -1
                Console.WriteLine(sr.ReadLine())
            Loop
            sr.Close()
        Catch e As Exception
            Console.WriteLine("The process failed: {0}", e.ToString())
        End Try
    End Sub
End Class

Remarks

The Peek method returns an integer value in order to determine whether the end of the file, or another error has occurred. This allows a user to first check if the returned value is -1 before casting it to a Char type.

This method overrides TextReader.Peek.

The current position of the StreamReader object is not changed by Peek.

Applies to

See also