Varbinary to richtextbox

Question

I insert .doc or .pdf files contents in Varbinary field in the SQL database using byte array. Now i want to display this varbinary data in richtextbox in C#.Net. How can i do this. Please Help!

Sam Hobbs · Answer

You might be able to find a converter that takes as input a stream and if so you might be able to use a stream from memory. I don't know of anything like that but that is something to look for.

Vulpes · Answer

Not to my knowledge. Is there some reason why you don't want to stream these documents to disk first?

SAM J · Answer

is der any way if i cud open the varbinary data to Micrisoft Word or Pdf reader without the need to save it to the pc?? I jst want to view the data in varbinary filed. P.S. I save the extension(.doc or .pdf) of the file along with data.

Vulpes · Answer

Well, the RichTextBox can only handle plain text and RTF. So, you'd need to retrieve the varbinary field as a byte array and stream it to a disk file using File.WriteAllBytes. You'd then need to use a PDF to text or DOC to RTF converter to get the document into a form which can be displayed in the RichTextBox. If you have to do this programatically, then these two links may help: PDF to text ( http://www.codeproject.com/KB/string/pdf2text.aspx ) DOC to RTF ( http://www.codeproject.com/KB/cs/convertdocintootherformat.aspx )