System.Byte[] instead of String (SOAP)

[Trevahaha]

I have a web service that is connects to a mySQL database, pulls a large text field and returns it to the client.

Example:

string sql = "SELECT Essay FROM essay WHERE ((EssayID)='1234');";
MySQLCommand cmd = new MySQLCommand(sql, conn);
MySQLDataReader reader = cmd.ExecuteReaderEx();
if(reader.Read()){
  string essay = reader["Essay"].ToString();
  return essay;
}

...

However, when the client receives this, it is receiving "System.Byte[]" instead of the actual string. Why is this? How can I convert this properly. It seems to work fine internally when I populate Lucene.net with the strings (i.e. it's receiving the correct string).

THANKS!!!

 

[obislavu]

It is not clear if the above code is on the client side or on the web service method. But, if you receive a huge array, use the StringBuilder to get the string:

StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
System.Byte[] bytes = {};
foreach (byte b in bytes)
{
   sb.Append(Convert.ToChar(b));
}
string s1 = sb.ToString();

-obislavu-

 

[Trevahaha]

Well.. that was server side. But it says:
Cannot implicitly convert type 'string' to 'byte[]'

I'm just confused why I can't get this string to work...

Here's the entire method (on the server):

public string getFirstString(string q)
{
  string t="";
  try
  {
  MySQLConnection conn = new MySQLConnection(new MySQLConnectionString("localhost","essay","username","password").AsString);
  conn.Open();
  string sql = "SELECT Essay FROM essay WHERE ((EssayID)='" + q +"');";
  MySQLCommand cmd = new MySQLCommand(sql, conn);
  MySQLDataReader reader = cmd.ExecuteReaderEx();

  if(reader.Read())
  {
   string essay = reader["Essay"].ToString();
   t += essay + ": (length: " + essay.Length + ")<br>";
  }else{
   t = "Essay Not Found";
  }
  reader.Close();
  conn.Close();
}catch(Exception e){
 t += "An Error! " + e.ToString();
}
  return t;
}
}

The client is pretty simple.. it's like:
string variable = servicename.getFirstString("####");

 

[Trevahaha]

Sorry.. I read up on StringBuilder... weird enough.. I still got System.Byte[] returned to the client.

I can send back other strings just fine.. it sends back

System.Byte[]: (length: 13)

I'm just clueless. hmm.

 

[obislavu]

It is strange but I would modify the above code like here:
if (reader.HasRows)
{
while (reader.Read())
{
//...
}
}
else
{
// not found
}
-obislavu-