Data to FTP upload by stream copy I'd like to check the following process relating to the uploading of data by FTP, after the data is read from a database. 

I have a stored procedure that returns data in the following pipe delimited format in a single column. It typically returns around 300 rows, each row has about 300 bytes. 

1234|||||PROPERTY|||MARKET INDEX|||||ADDRESS|||||1||||GBP|||||||20110930||||||||C|OFFICE|F||


The application then submits that data by FTP, typically &lt;100k overall.

Here's the mechanism used, restricted to .NET 3.5. 

// database method returns dataset/datareader, converted and passed to method as
// IEnumerable&lt;string&gt; data

string ftpServerIP = "5.4.3.2:21";
string targetFileName = "mann.txt";
string username = "manfred";
string password = "*******";

Uri uri = new Uri(String.Format("ftp://{0}/{1}", ftpServerIP, targetFileName));    
FtpWebRequest reqFTP = (FtpWebRequest)FtpWebRequest.Create(uri);
reqFTP.Credentials = new NetworkCredential(username, password);
reqFTP.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.UploadFile;
reqFTP.KeepAlive = false;
reqFTP.UsePassive = false;

MemoryStream stIn = new MemoryStream();
using (StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(stIn))
{
    foreach (string item in data)
    {
        sw.WriteLine(item);
    }

    sw.Flush();

    using (Stream stOut = reqFTP.GetRequestStream())
    {
        stOut.Write(stIn.GetBuffer(), 0, (int)stIn.Length);
    }
}

FtpWebResponse response = (FtpWebResponse)reqFTP.GetResponse();
response.Close();


I'd like to check whether the stream and ftp processing looks ok, or whether there are other stream types to consider (BufferedStream?), or closure/disposal steps, etc...
In general it looks fine to me. BufferedStream would not help anything here, your data is already in memory by the time any streams get created.

I would prefer to see the MemoryStream in a using block, although in this case it is being disposed when the StreamWriter is disposed.

It may be a good idea to check the response and handle any error status. If you do ever add any code that uses the FtpWebResponse, I would change to a using block, instead of the call to close. 

Not really related to the code, but avoid using FTP if you can.