C# - Check if File is Text Based

Question

How can I test whether a file that I\'m opening in C# using FileStream is a \"text type\" file? I would like my program to open any file that is text based, for example, .t

Answer 1

To get the real type of a file, you must check its header, which won't be changed even the extension is modified. You can get the header list here, and use something like this in your code:

using(var stream = new FileStream(fileName, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read))
{
   using(var reader = new BinaryReader(stream))
   {
     // read the first X bytes of the file
     // In this example I want to check if the file is a BMP
     // whose header is 424D in hex(2 bytes 6677)
     string code = reader.ReadByte().ToString() + reader.ReadByte().ToString();
     if (code.Equals("6677"))
     {
        //it's a BMP file
     }
   }
}