Both StreamReader and BinaryReader can be used to get data from binary file
Well, StreamReader can be used to get text data from a binary representation of text.
BinaryReader can be used to get arbitrary binary data. If some of that binary data happens to be a representation of text, that’s fine – but it doesn’t have to be.
Bottom line:
- If the entirety of your data is a straightforward binary encoding of text data, use
StreamReader. - If you’ve fundamentally got binary data which may happen to have some portions in text, use
BinaryReader
So for example, you wouldn’t try to read a JPEG file with StreamReader.