TFileStream and TMemoryStream Classes in Delphi

TFileStream and TMemoryStream Classes in Delphi

TFileStream class is descendant of THandleStream and is used for manipulating file data. TMemoryStream is used for manipulating data in memory. TMemoryStream is descendant of TStream class. This class introduces read-only property called Memory which is of pointer type. So, you can get direct access to memory maintained by TMemoryStream.

TFileStream class usage in Delphi

Following is the simple delphi program to load a file name 'c:\mydata.dat' for read access into stream and then read 4 bytes from beginning of file into a variable.

var

  afile_st : TFileStream;

  temp_data: cardinal;

...

afile_st:=TFileStream.Create('c:\mydata.dat', fmOpenRead);

try

  //make sure file pointer is on beginning of file

  afile_st.Seek(0, soFromBeginning); 

  //read buffer

  afile_st.ReadBuffer(temp_data, 4);

finally

  afile_st.Free;

end;

TMemoryStream class usage in Delphi

Use TMemoryStream to store data in a dynamic memory buffer that is enhanced with file-like access capabilities. TMemoryStream provides the general I/O capabilities of a stream object while introducing methods and properties to manage a dynamic memory buffer. 

Following is the simple delphi program to load data from a file to memory.

var 

  memStream:TMemoryStream;

  ...

  memStream:=TMemoryStream.Create;

  try

   LoadFromFileToMem('C\myFile.dat',memStream);  

  finally

   memStream.Free;

  end;

  

procedure LoadFromFileToMem(const filename:string; memStream:TMemoryStream);

var 

  afileStream:TFileStream;

begin

  afileStream:=TFileStream.Create(filename, fmOpenRead);

  try

    memStream.CopyFrom(afileStream);

  finally

    afileStream.Free;

  end;

end;