C# 2Gb file is 4gb in Ram. Why? -

im reading in file(this file consists of 1 long string 2gb in length).

this function read contents of file memory , splits string , places: *reader = streamreader

public list<char[]> getallcontentaslist()         {             int bytestoread = 1000000;             char[] buffer = new char[bytestoread];             list<char[]> results = new list<char[]>();              while (_reader.read(buffer, 0, bytestoread) != 0)             {                 char[] temp = new char[bytestoread];                 array.copy(buffer,temp,bytestoread);                 results.add(temp);             }              return results;         } 

when data in placed list takes 4gb in ram. how possible when file 2gb in size?

*edit

this ended doing. im not converting array of bytes string, im passing bytes on manipulating them. fiel 2gb in mem instead of 4gb

 public list<byte[]> getallcontentaslist()             {                 int bytestoread = 1000000;                 var buffer = new byte[bytestoread];                 list<byte[]> results = new list<byte[]>();                  while (_reader.read(buffer, 0, bytestoread) != 0)                 {                     //string temp = encoding.utf8.getstring(buffer);                     byte[] b = new byte[bytestoread];                     array.copy(buffer,b,bytestoread);                     results.add(b);                 }                  return results;             } 

educated guess here:

the file utf-8 or ascii encoded , (mostly) contains singly byte wide characters (or possibly other codepage single byte wide).

now, .net characters utf-16 2 (or more) bytes in length.

so, in memory characters double size.