Reading data from an embedded resource

Here's some code to read data from an embedded resource:

/// <summary>Contains some methods to read data from an embedded resource.</summary>
public static class EmbeddedResourceReader
{
    /// <summary>Returns an embedded resource of the specified assembly as a string.</summary>
    /// <param name="assembly">The assembly to read the resource from.</param>
    /// <param name="resourceName">The name of the resource.</param>
    /// <returns>A string read from an embedded resource.</returns>
    public static string ReadString(Assembly assembly, string resourceName)
    {
        if (assembly == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("assembly");
        if (resourceName == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("resourceName");

        using(Stream lStream = assembly.GetManifestResourceStream(resourceName))
        using(StreamReader lReader = new StreamReader(lStream))
            return lReader.ReadToEnd();
    }

    /// <summary>Returns an embedded resource of the specified assembly as an icon.</summary>
    /// <param name="assembly">The assembly to read the resource from.</param>
    /// <param name="resourceName">The name of the resource.</param>
    /// <returns>An icon read from an embedded resource.</returns>
    public static Icon ReadIcon(Assembly assembly, string resourceName)
    {
        if (assembly == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("assembly");
        if (resourceName == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("resourceName");

        using(Stream lStream = assembly.GetManifestResourceStream(resourceName))
            return new Icon(lStream);
    }
}

Basically, you can read any kind of data from an embedded resource, using the method GetManifestResourceStream. The resource name you have to pass as an argument should be the default namespace of the assembly, appended with the filename. Here's an example how to use it:

Assembly assembly = this.GetType().Assembly;
string resourceName = "MyCompany.MyApplication.file.txt";
string content = EmbeddedResourceReader.ReadString(assembly, resourceName);

Tags: C#.