How to serialize a rather complex structure into a byte[] array, using BinaryWriter?
Update:
For this to work, every structure (and sub-structure?) must be decorated with the [Serializable] attribute.
I do not need to implement the ISerializable interface, as this is designed to give an object control over its own serialization.
Use the BinaryFormatter to serialize an object to a byte[]. BinaryWriter is just for writing bytes to a stream.
MyObject obj = new MyObject();
byte[] bytes;
IFormatter formatter = new BinaryFormatter();
using (MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream())
{
formatter.Serialize(stream, obj);
bytes = stream.ToArray();
}
From comments, the OP's scenario requires strong compatibility with future versions of the application / .NET, in which case I always advise againt BinaryFormatter
- it has many "features" that simply don't work well between versions (and certainly not between platforms).
I recommend looking at contract-based serializers; I'm biased, but I lean towards protobuf-net (which maps to Google's protobuf specification). The easiest way to do this is to attribute the types in such a way that the library can make light work of them (although it can also be done without attributes), for example:
[ProtoContract]
public class Customer {
[ProtoMember(1)]
public List<Order> Orders {get {....}}
[ProtoMember(2)]
public string Name {get;set;}
... etc
}
(the attribute appoach is very familiar if you've done any XmlSerializer or DataContractSerializer work - and indeed protobuf-net can consume the attributes from those if you don't want to add protobuf-net specific attributes)
then something like:
Customer cust = ...
byte[] data;
using(var ms = new MemoryStream()) {
Serializer.Serialize(ms, cust);
data = ms.ToArray();
}
The data produced this way is platform independent, and could be loaded on any matching contract (it doesn't even need to be Customer
- it could any type with matching layout via the attributes). Indeed, in most cases it'll load easily into any other protobuf implementation - Java, C++, etc.
If you love us? You can donate to us via Paypal or buy me a coffee so we can maintain and grow! Thank you!
Donate Us With