Closing Streams

Question

If I create a BinaryWriter BinaryReader StreamReader or StreamWriter around a stream do I have to close the reader/writer or can I just close the underlying stream? I know the underlying stream will be closed when the reader/writer is but does the reader/writer need to be closed as long as the underlying stream is already closed?

Mykonine · Answer

If you do not wish to close the stream or the reader before the end of the method make the reader a class field. That way the reference to the reader will still be there if you wish to end it in another method.

jlousnhd · Answer

I guess I should try and be a bit more specific (sorry I guess I didn't explain my question too well). Here's an example: public static void ReadSomeData(Stream stream) { BinaryReader reader = new BinaryReader(stream Encoding.ASCII); string data = reader.ReadString(); Process(data); //Now I don't want to close stream but closing reader will automatically close stream. Is it OK to just return at this point without closing reader? Or should I go about this a different way so I can keep track of the reader until the stream can be closed? } Thanks in advance for any help!

Mykonine · Answer

The underlying stream definitely has to be closed eventually but once the stream is closed there's really no use in not closing the attached reader anyway.