C# and .NET: How to serialize a structure into a byte[] array, using BinaryWriter?

Question

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.

Answer 1

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();
}