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

Variant of the code of Vicent with one less memory allocation:

public static byte[] GetBytes<T>(T str)
{
    int size = Marshal.SizeOf(str);

    byte[] arr = new byte[size];

    GCHandle h = default(GCHandle);

    try
    {
        h = GCHandle.Alloc(arr, GCHandleType.Pinned);

        Marshal.StructureToPtr<T>(str, h.AddrOfPinnedObject(), false);
    }
    finally
    {
        if (h.IsAllocated)
        {
            h.Free();
        }
    }

    return arr;
}

public static T FromBytes<T>(byte[] arr) where T : struct
{
    T str = default(T);

    GCHandle h = default(GCHandle);

    try
    {
        h = GCHandle.Alloc(arr, GCHandleType.Pinned);

        str = Marshal.PtrToStructure<T>(h.AddrOfPinnedObject());

    }
    finally
    {
        if (h.IsAllocated)
        {
            h.Free();
        }
    }

    return str;
}

I use GCHandle to "pin" the memory and then I use directly its address with h.AddrOfPinnedObject().

Have a look at these methods:

byte [] StructureToByteArray(object obj)
{
    int len = Marshal.SizeOf(obj);

    byte [] arr = new byte[len];

    IntPtr ptr = Marshal.AllocHGlobal(len);

    Marshal.StructureToPtr(obj, ptr, true);

    Marshal.Copy(ptr, arr, 0, len);

    Marshal.FreeHGlobal(ptr);

    return arr;
}

void ByteArrayToStructure(byte [] bytearray, ref object obj)
{
    int len = Marshal.SizeOf(obj);

    IntPtr i = Marshal.AllocHGlobal(len);

    Marshal.Copy(bytearray,0, i,len);

    obj = Marshal.PtrToStructure(i, obj.GetType());

    Marshal.FreeHGlobal(i);
}

This is a shameless copy of another thread which I found upon Googling!

Update : For more details, check the source

If you really want it to be FAST on Windows, you can do it using unsafe code with CopyMemory. CopyMemory is about 5x faster (e.g. 800MB of data takes 3s to copy via marshalling, while only taking .6s to copy via CopyMemory). This method does limit you to using only data which is actually stored in the struct blob itself, e.g. numbers, or fixed length byte arrays.

    [DllImport("kernel32.dll", EntryPoint = "CopyMemory", SetLastError = false)]
    private static unsafe extern void CopyMemory(void *dest, void *src, int count);

    private static unsafe byte[] Serialize(TestStruct[] index)
    {
        var buffer = new byte[Marshal.SizeOf(typeof(TestStruct)) * index.Length];
        fixed (void* d = &buffer[0])
        {
            fixed (void* s = &index[0])
            {
                CopyMemory(d, s, buffer.Length);
            }
        }

        return buffer;
    }

This is fairly easy, using marshalling.

Top of file

using System.Runtime.InteropServices

Function

byte[] getBytes(CIFSPacket str) {
    int size = Marshal.SizeOf(str);
    byte[] arr = new byte[size];

    IntPtr ptr = IntPtr.Zero;
    try
    {
        ptr = Marshal.AllocHGlobal(size);
        Marshal.StructureToPtr(str, ptr, true);
        Marshal.Copy(ptr, arr, 0, size);
    }
    finally
    {
        Marshal.FreeHGlobal(ptr);
    }
    return arr;
}

And to convert it back:

CIFSPacket fromBytes(byte[] arr)
{
    CIFSPacket str = new CIFSPacket();

    int size = Marshal.SizeOf(str);
    IntPtr ptr = IntPtr.Zero;
    try
    {
        ptr = Marshal.AllocHGlobal(size);

        Marshal.Copy(arr, 0, ptr, size);

        str = (CIFSPacket)Marshal.PtrToStructure(ptr, str.GetType());
    }
    finally
    {
        Marshal.FreeHGlobal(ptr);
    }
    return str;
}

In your structure, you will need to put this before a string

[MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.ByValTStr, SizeConst = 100)]
public string Buffer;

And make sure SizeConst is as big as your biggest possible string.

And you should probably read this: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/4ca6d5z7.aspx