How to convert a structure to a byte array in C#?

Question

How do I convert a structure to a byte array in C#?

I have defined a structure like this:

public struct CIFSPacket
{
    public uint protocolIdentifi         


        

Answer 1

I know this is really late, but with C# 7.3 you can do this for unmanaged structs or anything else that's unmanged (int, bool etc...):

public static unsafe byte[] ConvertToBytes(T value) where T : unmanaged {
        byte* pointer = (byte*)&value;

        byte[] bytes = new byte[sizeof(T)];
        for (int i = 0; i < sizeof(T); i++) {
            bytes[i] = pointer[i];
        }

        return bytes;
    }

Then use like this:

struct MyStruct {
        public int Value1;
        public int Value2;
        //.. blah blah blah
    }

    byte[] bytes = ConvertToBytes(new MyStruct());