ReadAllBytes Method of the File Class PROBLEM

Well, the smallest datatype in .NET is byte and so, to get an array of bits, you'll need to store them in an array of bytes which is 8 times as long as the corresponding array of bytes:

            byte[] bytes = File.ReadAllBytes(filePath);
            byte[] bits = new byte[8 * bytes.Length];
            for(int i = 0; i < bytes.Length; i++)
            {               
                byte[] temp = GetBits(bytes[i]);
                for(int j = 0; j < 8; j++)
                {
                   bits[8 * i + j] = temp[j];
                }
            }

            // helper method

           static byte[] GetBits(byte b)
           {
               byte[] bits = new byte[8];
               string temp = Convert.ToString(b, 2).PadLeft(8, '0');
               for(int i = 0; i < 8; i++) bits[i] = (byte)(temp[i] - 48);            
               return bits;
           }

Ideally what I am trying to do is copy of a file off my desktop in an Array of Bits (not Bytes).  Can you please explain how this can be done?

The name of your array is 'data'. So data[0] contains the first byte and so on.

Note though that 'data' is only accessible within the 'if' statement. If you want it to be accessible throughout the Main method, then you need to declare it outside the ''if' statement and initialize it to null, say, as I did in my first post.

However, another problem with your code is that both temporary files are zero bytes long. Copying from one to the other therefore has no effect.

Your suggestion was to do what I wrote below. Could you please then indicate how do I then access the array? Which identifier indicates the NAME of my array?


using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;

namespace Applica
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
long Totbyte = 0;//file length initialize to 0
DirectoryInfo da = new DirectoryInfo("C:\\Folder");//local file on the computer
FileInfo[] Arr = da.GetFiles();
foreach (FileInfo ap in Arr)
Totbyte = ap.Length;//real file length on local computer
Console.WriteLine("Total Bytes = {0} bytes", Totbyte);//the code works great up to this point

//want to set up an array for the exact file length above and read all bytes into the array
//not sure of what I am doing below, but its not working out
string temPath = Path.GetTempFileName();
string temPath2 = Path.GetTempFileName();
if (File.Exists(temPath))
{
byte[] data = File.ReadAllBytes(temPath);
File.WriteAllBytes(temPath2, data);
}
}
}
}

I already have the file on my computer.  I do not want to read the file to my computer.  I want to read the file into an array of TotByte size.  TobByte is the size of the array in which I want to read the file into.

It looks from your code as though you may be trying to copy the contents of a single file in C:\Folder to a new temporary file. If so, then you can do it like this:

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;

namespace Applica
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            long Totbyte = 0;//file length initialize to 0
            string filePath = null;
            DirectoryInfo da = new DirectoryInfo("C:\\Folder");//local file on the computer
            FileInfo[] Arr = da.GetFiles();
         
            foreach (FileInfo ap in Arr)
            { 
                Totbyte = ap.Length;//real file length on local computer
                filePath = ap.FullName;
            } 

            Console.WriteLine("Total Bytes = {0} bytes", Totbyte);//the code works great up to this point                      
            string temPath = Path.GetTempFileName();
            byte[] data = null; 

            if (File.Exists(temPath))
            {
               data = File.ReadAllBytes(filePath);
               File.WriteAllBytes(temPath, data);
            }
        }
    }
}

However, it's much easier to just use File.Copy.