Reliable way to convert a file to a byte[]

byte[] bytes = System.IO.File.ReadAllBytes(filename);

That should do the trick. ReadAllBytes opens the file, reads its contents into a new byte array, then closes it. Here's the MSDN page for that method.

byte[] bytes = File.ReadAllBytes(filename)

or ...

var bytes = File.ReadAllBytes(filename)

Not to repeat what everyone already have said but keep the following cheat sheet handly for File manipulations:

System.IO.File.ReadAllBytes(filename);
File.Exists(filename)
Path.Combine(folderName, resOfThePath);
Path.GetFullPath(path); // converts a relative path to absolute one
Path.GetExtension(path);

All these answers with .ReadAllBytes(). Another, similar (I won't say duplicate, since they were trying to refactor their code) question was asked on SO here: Best way to read a large file into a byte array in C#?

A comment was made on one of the posts regarding .ReadAllBytes():

File.ReadAllBytes throws OutOfMemoryException with big files (tested with 630 MB file 
and it failed) – juanjo.arana Mar 13 '13 at 1:31

A better approach, to me, would be something like this, with BinaryReader:

public static byte[] FileToByteArray(string fileName)
{
    byte[] fileData = null;

    using (FileStream fs = File.OpenRead(fileName)) 
    { 
        var binaryReader = new BinaryReader(fs); 
        fileData = binaryReader.ReadBytes((int)fs.Length); 
    }
    return fileData;
}

But that's just me...

Of course, this all assumes you have the memory to handle the byte[] once it is read in, and I didn't put in the File.Exists check to ensure the file is there before proceeding, as you'd do that before calling this code.

Reliable way to convert a file to a byte[]

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