Converting a structure to a byte array

Question

Is there a method or way of converting a structure to a byte array in one step. Or is there a way of transmitting data on the network without converting to a byte array???

gordon · Answer

Thanks Alan works fine. In the structure I did need to use the Pack =1 attribute as for unpacking it's going to a program written in C++ but thanks for the info.

Alan · Answer

No it's not exactly obvious :) Incidentally Gordon if you need to unpack the byte array into a struct following transmission then this code should do it (same variables as before): ip = Marshal.AllocHGlobal(size); Marshal.Copy(ba 0 ip size); ss = (SomeStruct)Marshal.PtrToStructure(ip typeof(SomeStruct)); Marshal.FreeHGlobal(ip);

gordon · Answer

Thanks Alan I'll give this a try. They certianly didn't make some things easy or intutivate in C sharp did they.

Alan · Answer

Well you could do it in a few lines with this code: using System.Runtime.InteropServices; ....... SomeStruct ss = new SomeStruct(); int size = Marshal.SizeOf(ss); byte[] ba = new byte[size]; IntPtr ip = Marshal.AllocHGlobal(size); Marshal.StructureToPtr(ss ip true); Marshal.Copy(ip ba 0 size); Marshal.FreeHGlobal(ip); However for this to work properly you need to mark your struct definition with the following attribute: [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)] public struct SomeStruct { // code }