Convert StreamReader to byte[]

Just throw everything you read into a MemoryStream and get the byte array in the end. As noted, you should be reading from the underlying stream to get the raw bytes.

var bytes = default(byte[]);
using (var memstream = new MemoryStream())
{
    var buffer = new byte[512];
    var bytesRead = default(int);
    while ((bytesRead = reader.BaseStream.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length)) > 0)
        memstream.Write(buffer, 0, bytesRead);
    bytes = memstream.ToArray();
}

Or if you don't want to manage the buffers:

var bytes = default(byte[]);
using (var memstream = new MemoryStream())
{
    reader.BaseStream.CopyTo(memstream);
    bytes = memstream.ToArray();
}

A StreamReader is for text, not plain bytes. Don't use a StreamReader, and instead read directly from the underlying stream.


You can also use CopyTo:

var ms = new MemoryStream();
yourStreamReader.BaseStream.CopyTo(ms); // blocking call till the end of the stream
ms.GetBuffer().CopyTo(yourArray, ms.Length);

or

var ms = new MemoryStream();
var ct = yourStreamReader.BaseStream.CopyToAsync(ms);
await ct;
ms.GetBuffer().CopyTo(yourArray, ms.Length);