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Convert Object To Byte Array And Viceversa (serialization)

04.24.2007

| 78228 views |


// Convert an object to a byte array
private byte[] ObjectToByteArray(Object obj)
{
    if(obj == null)
        return null;
    BinaryFormatter bf = new BinaryFormatter();
    MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream();
    bf.Serialize(ms, obj);
    return ms.ToArray();
}
// Convert a byte array to an Object
private Object ByteArrayToObject(byte[] arrBytes)
{
    MemoryStream memStream = new MemoryStream();
    BinaryFormatter binForm = new BinaryFormatter();
    memStream.Write(arrBytes, 0, arrBytes.Length);
    memStream.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin);
    Object obj = (Object) binForm.Deserialize(memStream);
    return obj;
}
 
p.s. for custom classes add [Serializable] attribute to enable serialization

Tags:

csharp
serialization

Comments

Snippets Manager replied on Mon, 2010/07/12 - 11:37am

thanks mate.. great great post..

Snippets Manager replied on Mon, 2011/07/11 - 12:45pm

While this works it seems to copy all the data in the object twice, leading to poor performance. A performance trace with visual studio for a large object shows 1.7 sec spent on .Serialize() and 1.2 sec spent on .ToArray() Is there a way to copy the data of the object only once?

Snippets Manager replied on Wed, 2011/05/11 - 11:44am

Thanks for this code.I wanna serialize an object in order to send it via RTP packet. The problem is when i try to send an object intance (instances of classes i made)after its serialization.It seems like it is not arrived to its destination.But with predefined objects(int , double..), it work very well.the serialization without sending just work fineon both but this problem is just when i send the bytes serialized of an class's instanciation.

Snippets Manager replied on Fri, 2011/01/28 - 4:35pm

Thanks - Nice little utility. I already added it to my toolbox! One the I ran into was serializing a an object that had a PropertyChangedEventHandler. I found out here (http://bytes.com/topic/net/answers/124265-c-serialization-events-problem) that the field needs to be prefixed with [field: NonSerialized]. That seemed to fix my problems.