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Memory Stream vs FileStream

  • Stream is a representation of bytes
  • Both these classes derive from the Stream class which is abstract by definition
  • As the name suggests, a FileStream reads and writes to a file whereas a MemoryStream reads and writes to the memory. So it relates to where the stream is stored
    • Let us assume you want to read binary data from the database, you would go in for a MemoryStream
    • However if you want to read a file on your system, you would go in for a FileStream
  • One quick advantage of a MemoryStream is that there is not need to create temporary buffers and files in an application