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

You can use Marshal (StructureToPtr, ptrToStructure), and Marshal.copy but this is plataform dependent.

---

Serialization includes Functions to Custom Serialization.

public virtual void GetObjectData(SerializationInfo info, StreamingContext context)
Protected Sub New(ByVal info As SerializationInfo, ByVal context As StreamingContext) 

SerializationInfo include functions to serialize each member.

---

BinaryWriter and BinaryReader also contains methods to Save / Load to Byte Array (Stream).

Note that you can create a MemoryStream from a Byte Array or a Byte Array from a MemoryStream.

You can create a method Save and a method New on your structure:

   Save(Bw as BinaryWriter)
   New (Br as BinaryReader)

Then you select members to Save / Load to Stream -> Byte Array.