The GZipStream class is a part of the System.IO.Compression namespace. This class is used for the compression of data. Before the .NET 2.0 Framework, the only choice we had for compression were third party tools.

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Common Methods (Full List)

• BeginRead – Begins an asynchronous read operation.
• BeginWrite – Begins an asynchronous write operation.
• Close – Closes the current stream and releases any resources (such as sockets and file handles) associated with the current stream.
• EndRead – Waits for the pending asynchronous read to complete.
• EndWrite – Handles the end of an asynchronous write operation.
• Read – Reads a number of decompressed bytes into the specified byte array.
• Write – Writes compressed bytes to the underlying stream from the specified byte array.

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Below is a simple C# console application that takes an input file, compresses it and creates a compressed zip file.

View the C# code sample [HERE]

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The command-line illustration below shows the application at work.

• If no argument is provided, the usage syntax is echoed to the screen
• If the argument provided cannot be located, error is echoed to the screen
• If correct argument is provided, the file is compressed and a new file is created

The result (compressed) file created.

View the compressed file in a Zip application.

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The GZipStream class is not as feature-rich as the third-party tools, but it is a convenient way to compress data.

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Related Content

• Using GZipStream for Compression in .NET
• How to: Compress Files
• Compression Application Sample

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Happy programming…