Closing Streams

Question

If I create a BinaryWriter, BinaryReader, StreamReader or StreamWriter around a stream, do I have to close the reader/writer or can I just close the underlying stream? I know the underlying stream will be closed when the reader/writer is, but does the reader/writer need to be closed as long as the underlying stream is already closed?

Mykonine · Answer

If you do not wish to close the stream or the reader before the end of the method, make the reader a class field. That way the reference to the reader will still be there if you wish to end it in another method.

jlousnhd · Answer

I guess I should try and be a bit more specific, (sorry I guess I didn't explain my question too well). Here's an example:
public static void ReadSomeData(Stream stream) {
BinaryReader reader = new BinaryReader(stream, Encoding.ASCII);
string data = reader.ReadString();
Process(data);
//Now, I don't want to close stream, but closing reader will automatically close stream. Is it OK to just return at this point without closing reader? Or should I go about this a different way so I can keep track of the reader until the stream can be closed?
}
Thanks in advance for any help!

Mykonine · Answer

The underlying stream definitely has to be closed eventually, but once the stream is closed there's really no use in not closing the attached reader anyway.