[c#] Compression/Decompression string with C#

With the advent of .NET 4.0 (and higher) with the Stream.CopyTo() methods, I thought I would post an updated approach.

I also think the below version is useful as a clear example of a self-contained class for compressing regular strings to Base64 encoded strings, and vice versa:

public static class StringCompression
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Compresses a string and returns a deflate compressed, Base64 encoded string.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="uncompressedString">String to compress</param>
    public static string Compress(string uncompressedString)
    {
        byte[] compressedBytes;

        using (var uncompressedStream = new MemoryStream(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(uncompressedString)))
        {
            using (var compressedStream = new MemoryStream())
            { 
                // setting the leaveOpen parameter to true to ensure that compressedStream will not be closed when compressorStream is disposed
                // this allows compressorStream to close and flush its buffers to compressedStream and guarantees that compressedStream.ToArray() can be called afterward
                // although MSDN documentation states that ToArray() can be called on a closed MemoryStream, I don't want to rely on that very odd behavior should it ever change
                using (var compressorStream = new DeflateStream(compressedStream, CompressionLevel.Fastest, true))
                {
                    uncompressedStream.CopyTo(compressorStream);
                }

                // call compressedStream.ToArray() after the enclosing DeflateStream has closed and flushed its buffer to compressedStream
                compressedBytes = compressedStream.ToArray();
            }
        }

        return Convert.ToBase64String(compressedBytes);
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Decompresses a deflate compressed, Base64 encoded string and returns an uncompressed string.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="compressedString">String to decompress.</param>
    public static string Decompress(string compressedString)
    {
        byte[] decompressedBytes;

        var compressedStream = new MemoryStream(Convert.FromBase64String(compressedString));

        using (var decompressorStream = new DeflateStream(compressedStream, CompressionMode.Decompress))
        {
            using (var decompressedStream = new MemoryStream())
            {
                decompressorStream.CopyTo(decompressedStream);

                decompressedBytes = decompressedStream.ToArray();
            }
        }

        return Encoding.UTF8.GetString(decompressedBytes);
    }

Here’s another approach using the extension methods technique to extend the String class to add string compression and decompression. You can drop the class below into an existing project and then use thusly:

var uncompressedString = "Hello World!";
var compressedString = uncompressedString.Compress();

and

var decompressedString = compressedString.Decompress();

To wit:

public static class Extensions
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Compresses a string and returns a deflate compressed, Base64 encoded string.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="uncompressedString">String to compress</param>
    public static string Compress(this string uncompressedString)
    {
        byte[] compressedBytes;

        using (var uncompressedStream = new MemoryStream(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(uncompressedString)))
        {
            using (var compressedStream = new MemoryStream())
            { 
                // setting the leaveOpen parameter to true to ensure that compressedStream will not be closed when compressorStream is disposed
                // this allows compressorStream to close and flush its buffers to compressedStream and guarantees that compressedStream.ToArray() can be called afterward
                // although MSDN documentation states that ToArray() can be called on a closed MemoryStream, I don't want to rely on that very odd behavior should it ever change
                using (var compressorStream = new DeflateStream(compressedStream, CompressionLevel.Fastest, true))
                {
                    uncompressedStream.CopyTo(compressorStream);
                }

                // call compressedStream.ToArray() after the enclosing DeflateStream has closed and flushed its buffer to compressedStream
                compressedBytes = compressedStream.ToArray();
            }
        }

        return Convert.ToBase64String(compressedBytes);
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Decompresses a deflate compressed, Base64 encoded string and returns an uncompressed string.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="compressedString">String to decompress.</param>
    public static string Decompress(this string compressedString)
    {
        byte[] decompressedBytes;

        var compressedStream = new MemoryStream(Convert.FromBase64String(compressedString));

        using (var decompressorStream = new DeflateStream(compressedStream, CompressionMode.Decompress))
        {
            using (var decompressedStream = new MemoryStream())
            {
                decompressorStream.CopyTo(decompressedStream);

                decompressedBytes = decompressedStream.ToArray();
            }
        }

        return Encoding.UTF8.GetString(decompressedBytes);
    }