How to Read an embedded resource as array of bytes without writing it to disk?

Question

In my application I compile another program from source.cs file using CodeDom.Compiler and I embed some resources ( exe and dll files ) at compile time using :

Answer 1

Keep in mind that Embedded resource filename = Assemblyname.fileName

string fileName = "test.pdf";
System.Reflection.Assembly a = 
System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly();
        string fileName = a.GetName().Name + "." + 
"test.pdf";
        using (Stream resFilestream = 
 a.GetManifestResourceStream(fileName))
        {
            if (resFilestream == null) return null;
            byte[] ba = new 
byte[resFilestream.Length];
            resFilestream.Read(ba, 0, ba.Length);
            var byteArray= ba;
        }

Answer 2

You are actually already reading the stream to a byte array, why not just stop there?

public static byte[] ExtractResource(String filename)
{
    System.Reflection.Assembly a = System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly();
    using (Stream resFilestream = a.GetManifestResourceStream(filename))
    {
        if (resFilestream == null) return null;
        byte[] ba = new byte[resFilestream.Length];
        resFilestream.Read(ba, 0, ba.Length);
        return ba;
    }
}

edit: See comments for a preferable reading pattern.

Answer 3

Simple alternative using a MemoryStream:

var ms = new MemoryStream();
await resFilestream.CopyToAsync(ms);
var bytes = ms.ToArray();

Answer 4

File.WriteAllBytes(@"C:\Users\admin\Desktop\MyFile.exe", Resources.BinFile); // binary file
File.WriteAllText(@"C:\Users\admin\Desktop\text.txt", Resources.TextFile); // text file