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C#

Unzip a Text File Entry into a StringBuilder Using ZipEntry.UnzipToSb

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This example demonstrates how to use the ZipEntry.UnzipToSb method to inflate a text file entry directly into a StringBuilder object.

The ZIP entry is uncompressed entirely in memory and appended to the StringBuilder without creating a temporary file on disk.

This is useful when:

  • Processing text files directly in memory
  • Avoiding temporary filesystem files
  • Reading configuration files, JSON, XML, CSV, or source code from ZIP archives
  • Automatically converting line endings while inflating the text

The srcCharset argument specifies how the uncompressed bytes should be interpreted, such as:

  • utf-8
  • utf-16
  • windows-1252

The lineEndingBehavior argument controls line-ending conversion:

  • 0 — Leave line endings unchanged
  • 1 — Convert all line endings to bare LF
  • 2 — Convert all line endings to CRLF

Suppose the ZIP archive contains:

config/settings.json

The example inflates the JSON file directly into a StringBuilder.

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C#
bool success = false;

Chilkat.Zip zip = new Chilkat.Zip();

// Open an existing ZIP archive.
success = zip.OpenZip("qa_data/zips/configFiles.zip");
if (success == false) {
    Debug.WriteLine(zip.LastErrorText);
    return;
}

// Locate the JSON file entry within the ZIP archive.
Chilkat.ZipEntry entry = new Chilkat.ZipEntry();

success = zip.EntryOf("config/settings.json",entry);
if (success == false) {
    Debug.WriteLine("ZIP entry not found.");
    zip.CloseZip();
    return;
}

// ------------------------------------------------------------
// Inflate the ZIP entry directly into a StringBuilder.
// 
// The uncompressed text is appended to the StringBuilder.
// 
Chilkat.StringBuilder sb = new Chilkat.StringBuilder();

// Leave line endings unchanged.
int lineEndingBehavior = 0;

// Interpret the uncompressed bytes as UTF-8 text.
string srcCharset = "utf-8";

success = entry.UnzipToSb(lineEndingBehavior,srcCharset,sb);
if (success == false) {
    Debug.WriteLine(entry.LastErrorText);
    return;
}

Debug.WriteLine("Uncompressed text:");
Debug.WriteLine("");
Debug.WriteLine(sb.GetAsString());

zip.CloseZip();

Debug.WriteLine("Done.");