>IMHO VFP FileToStr() equivalant is BinaryReader not StreamReader.

I cannot see how I can have a universal method by using BinaryReader which I would be able to use to read text file. For example, I could have the following:

Dim loBinaryReader As IO.BinaryReader
Dim loByte() As Byte
Dim loFileStream As IO.FileStream
loFileStream = New IO.FileStream(tcFileName, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read)
loBinaryReader = New IO.BinaryReader(loFileStream)
loByte = loBinaryReader.ReadBytes(CType(loFileStream.Length, Integer))

As this point, I have an object Byte. If I am reading a text file, how can I convert this object back to a string?