Binary Writer returns byte array of null

Question

I'm working with the MRIM (Mail.Ru Agent) protocol. MRIM is a binary protocol, so in order to make the data binary, I'm using the BinaryWriter class. Here's the code:

    private byte[] CreateMrimPacket(ulong message) 
    { 
       byte[] binaryData; 
        using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream()) 
        { 
            using (BinaryWriter bw = new BinaryWriter(ms)) 
            { 
                bw.Write(CS_MAGIC); //CS_MAGIC is a constant that doesn't equal 0
                bw.Write(PROTO_VERSION); //Same thing
                bw.Write((ulong)SeqCounter); 
                bw.Write(message); 
                bw.Write((ulong)0); 
                bw.Write((ulong)0); 
                bw.Write((ulong)0); 
                bw.Write((ulong)0); 
                bw.Write((ulong)0); 
                bw.Write((ulong)0); 
                bw.Write((ulong)0); 
                binaryData = new byte[ms.Length]; 
                ms.Read(binaryData, 0, binaryData.Length); 
            } 
        } 
        return binaryData; 
    } 

This function returns byte array but all the values are 0.
Please, help me to solve this problem.
Thanks in advance

Answer 1

You're writing to the stream, leaving it at the end of the data you've written, and then reading from it. There's no data at the current position!

You could use ms.Position = 0; before reading... but fortunately, it's easier than you're making it anyway... just use:

return ms.ToArray();

MemoryStream.ToArray returns all the data in the stream, regardless of the current position (and also regardless of whether the stream is closed or not).