Reading Multiple files in a Byte Array

Question

I have an object that has a byte array property 'ZipFile' to store a file stream:

Property in Result class:

public class Result
{
  public byte[] ZipFile;
}

In my application, I generate a PDF file, and read the file into the 'ZipFile' property using my ReadFile method like this :

objResult.ZipFile = ReadFile(FilePath);

Signature of ReadFile method:

private byte[] ReadFile(string strFileName)

The Problem:

My ReadFile method will now be called in a loop, because I am generating multiple PDF files. Each time the ReadFile method will read a new file from the specifed parameter to the 'objResult.ZipFile' property, consequently replacing the old value in 'ZipFile' property. Now, I want my 'ZipFile' property to store multiple PDF files stream. So what should I do for that? Should I just change this property to a two dimensional byte[][] array, or is there any better way to do this? Remember, that this property will be used for saving(writing) these files by calling method. Open to all Suggestions. Thanks.

Answer 1

Sounds like you should either have a List<Result> , or result should have a collection such as List<byte[]> as a ZipFiles property. Note that currently you don't have a property at all - you have a public field, which is generally a bad idea.

(You probably wouldn't expose it as a List<byte[]> - that would be the underlying implementation. I'd probably make it an IEnumerable<byte[]> and expose an AddZipFile method.)

Answer 2

You may use List<byte[]> (list of byte array) and then append the array in the list in each iteration. Something like.

public class Result
{
   public List<byte[]> ZipFilesList { get; set; };
}

Later you can do:

ResultObj.ZipFilesList.Add(ReadFile(FilePath));

Answer 3

You need to have list of List<byte[]>

public class Result
{
   public List<byte[]> ZipFiles;
}

And add the files into your list

objResult.ZipFiles.Add(ReadFile(FilePath));

Answer 4

If you just want to store them for later processing a list or queue will do it. I think I would opt for a queue as your usage pattern seems to match that.

 // make queue
 var filesQueue = new Queue<byte[]>();

 // add file
 filesQueue.Enqueue(newFile);

 // get file
 var fileToSave=filesQueue.Dequeue();

You can switch to a concurrentQueue later if you would ever need to parallelize etc..