.NET GZipStream compress and decompress problem

Question

What is wrong with this code below. I always get FALSE, meaning after compression, decompressed data does not match original value.

public static bool Test()
        {
            string sample = "This is a compression test of microsoft .net gzip compression method and decompression methods";
            System.Text.ASCIIEncoding encoding = new System.Text.ASCIIEncoding();
            byte[] data = encoding.GetBytes(sample);
            bool result = false;

            //Compress
            MemoryStream cmpStream;
            cmpStream = new MemoryStream();
            GZipStream hgs = new GZipStream(cmpStream, CompressionMode.Compress);
            hgs.Write(data, 0, data.Length);
            byte[] cmpData = cmpStream.ToArray();

            MemoryStream decomStream;
            decomStream = new MemoryStream(cmpData);
            hgs = new GZipStream(decomStream, CompressionMode.Decompress);
            hgs.Read(data, 0, data.Length);

            string sampleOut = System.BitConverter.ToString(data);

            result = String.Equals(sample, sampleOut) ;
            return result;
        }

I will really appreciate if you can point out where I am making a mistake. Thanks for looking.

Sincerely, Mehdi Anis

Answer 1

Close the GZipStream after the Write call.

Without calling Close, there's a possibility that some data is buffered and is not written to the underlying stream yet.

Answer 2

Hi there.

Try this code:

public static bool Test()
        {
            string sample = "This is a compression test of microsoft .net gzip compression method and decompression methods";

            System.Text.ASCIIEncoding encoding = new System.Text.ASCIIEncoding();

            byte[] data = encoding.GetBytes(sample);
            bool result = false;

            // Compress
            MemoryStream cmpStream = new MemoryStream();

            GZipStream hgs = new GZipStream(cmpStream, CompressionMode.Compress);

            hgs.Write(data, 0, data.Length);

            byte[] cmpData = cmpStream.ToArray();

            MemoryStream decomStream = new MemoryStream(cmpData);

            hgs = new GZipStream(decomStream, CompressionMode.Decompress);
            hgs.Read(data, 0, data.Length);

            string sampleOut = encoding.GetString(data);

            result = String.Equals(sample, sampleOut);
            return result;
        }

The problem what that you were not using the ASCIIEncoder to get the string back for sampleData.

EDIT: Here's a cleaned up version of the code to help with Closing/Disposing:

public static bool Test()
        {
            string sample = "This is a compression test of microsoft .net gzip compression method and decompression methods";

            System.Text.ASCIIEncoding encoding = new System.Text.ASCIIEncoding();

            byte[] data = encoding.GetBytes(sample);

            // Compress.
            GZipStream hgs;
            byte[] cmpData;

            using(MemoryStream cmpStream = new MemoryStream())
            using(hgs = new GZipStream(cmpStream, CompressionMode.Compress))
            {
                hgs.Write(data, 0, data.Length);

                cmpData = cmpStream.ToArray();
            }

            using(MemoryStream decomStream = new MemoryStream(cmpData))
            using(hgs = new GZipStream(decomStream, CompressionMode.Decompress))
            {
                hgs.Read(data, 0, data.Length);
            }

            string sampleOut = encoding.GetString(data);

            bool result = String.Equals(sample, sampleOut);
            return result;
        }

Cheers. Jas.

Answer 3

There were three issues to solve the problem. 1. After WRITE GZipStream NEEDED to be closed :: hgs.Close();

1. GZipStream read needed to be used a WHILE loop and writing the smaller buffer of uncompressed data to a MemoryStream :: outStream.Write( ... );

2. The converting of decompressed byte[] array needed to use encoding conversion :: string sampleOut = encoding.GetString(data);

Here is the final code:-

public static bool Test()
        {
            string sample = "This is a compression test of microsoft .net gzip compression method and decompression methods";
            System.Text.ASCIIEncoding encoding = new System.Text.ASCIIEncoding();
            byte[] data = encoding.GetBytes(sample);
            bool result = false;

            // Compress 
            MemoryStream cmpStream = new MemoryStream();
            GZipStream hgs = new GZipStream(cmpStream, CompressionMode.Compress, true);

            hgs.Write(data, 0, data.Length);
            hgs.Close();


            //DeCompress
            byte[] cmpData = cmpStream.ToArray();
            MemoryStream decomStream = new MemoryStream(cmpData);

            data = new byte[data.Length];
            hgs = new GZipStream(decomStream, CompressionMode.Decompress, true);

            byte[] step = new byte[16]; //Instead of 16 can put any 2^x
            MemoryStream outStream = new MemoryStream();
            int readCount;

            do
            {
                readCount = hgs.Read(step, 0, step.Length);
                outStream.Write(step, 0, readCount);
            } while (readCount > 0);
            hgs.Close();

            string sampleOut = encoding.GetString(outStream.ToArray());
            result = String.Equals(sample, sampleOut);
            return result; 
        }

I had really trouble to get compress/decompress work with Microsoft .NET GZipStream object. Finally, I think I got it in right way. many thanks to all as the solution came from all of you.