How to read HttpResponseMessage content as text

Question

I'm using HttpResponseMessage class as a response from an AJAX call which is returning JSON data from a service. When I pause execution after the AJAX call comes back from the service, I see this class contains a Content property which is of type System.Net.Http.StreamContent.

If I inspect in the browser I see the network call being made successfully and the JSON data as the response. I'm just wondering why I cannot see the returned JSON text from within Visual Studio? I searched throughout this System.Net.Http.StreamContent object and see no data.

public async Task<HttpResponseMessage> Send(HttpRequestMessage request) {
    var response = await this.HttpClient.SendAsync(request);
    return response;
}

And what is it exactly that you want to do? Inspect the `response` variable? — Yuval Itzchakov, Apr 30 '15 at 18:27
yeah I was expecting to see JSON data that shows up as the response inside the chrome network panel to also be in that response object as it's content. — PythonIsGreat, Apr 30 '15 at 18:28
Open your immediate window and write `response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync().Result`. If your return type is JSON, you should see it there. — Yuval Itzchakov, Apr 30 '15 at 18:29

Bart van Nierop · Accepted Answer · 2015-04-30T18:38:17.627

99

The textual representation of the response is hidden in the Content property of the HttpResponseMessage class. Specifically, you get the response like this:

response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();

Like all modern Async methods, ReadAsStringAsync returns a Task. To get the result directly, use the Result property of the task:

response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync().Result;

Note that Result is blocking. You can also await ReadAsStringAsync().

edited Apr 30 '15 at 18:38

answered Apr 30 '15 at 18:29

Bart van Nierop

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This will return a `Task`. You'll need to `await` on that to see the actual string result. – Yuval Itzchakov Apr 30 '15 at 18:32

score 21 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 30 '15 at 18:37

21

You can use ReadAsStringAsync on the Content.

var response = await client.SendAsync(request);
var content = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();

Note that you usually should be using await - not .Result.

answered Apr 30 '15 at 18:37

Timothy Shields

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score 7 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 11 '18 at 03:58

7

You can you ReadAsStringAsync() method

var result = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();

We need to use await because we are using ReadAsStringAsync() which return task.

answered Apr 11 '18 at 03:58

Niraj Trivedi

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How to read HttpResponseMessage content as text

3 Answers3

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