What are the methods for downloading files in C#?

1 year ago
Jackson Davis
2 minutes

There are multiple ways to download files in C#.

  1. To utilize the WebClient class: You can download files using the DownloadFile method of the WebClient class. Here is an example:
string url = "http://example.com/file.txt";
string savePath = "C:\\Downloads\\file.txt";

using (WebClient client = new WebClient())
{
    client.DownloadFile(url, savePath);
}
  1. Utilizing the HttpClient class: You can use the GetAsync method of the HttpClient class to download a file. Here is an example:
string url = "http://example.com/file.txt";
string savePath = "C:\\Downloads\\file.txt";

using (HttpClient client = new HttpClient())
{
    HttpResponseMessage response = await client.GetAsync(url);
    response.EnsureSuccessStatusCode();

    using (Stream contentStream = await response.Content.ReadAsStreamAsync(),
                  stream = new FileStream(savePath, FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write, FileShare.None, 8192, true))
    {
        await contentStream.CopyToAsync(stream);
    }
}
  1. By using the WebRequest and WebResponse classes: you can send an HTTP request with the WebRequest class, and retrieve response data with the WebResponse class. Here is an example:
string url = "http://example.com/file.txt";
string savePath = "C:\\Downloads\\file.txt";

WebRequest request = WebRequest.Create(url);
WebResponse response = request.GetResponse();

using (Stream responseStream = response.GetResponseStream(),
              stream = new FileStream(savePath, FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write, FileShare.None, 8192, true))
{
    byte[] buffer = new byte[8192];
    int bytesRead;
    while ((bytesRead = responseStream.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length)) > 0)
    {
        stream.Write(buffer, 0, bytesRead);
    }
}

The above are three commonly used methods for downloading files, you can choose the method that suits your needs.

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