Problem with serialization

Question

I have problem with serialization. I want to convert an object into a string and vice versa. I have two utility methods:

public
static byte[] Serialize(Object o)
{
   MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream();
   BinaryFormatter bf1 = new BinaryFormatter();
   bf1.Serialize(ms, o);
   byte[] buffer = ms.ToArray();
   //string retStr = Convert.ToBase64String(buffer);
   return buffer;
}

public static object Deserialize(byte[] TheByteArray)
{
   //byte[] TheByteArray = Convert.FromBase64String(ParamStr);
   MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream(TheByteArray);
   BinaryFormatter bf1 = new BinaryFormatter();
   ms.Position = 0;
   return bf1.Deserialize(ms);
}

My test code is:

Student obj = new Student ();
obj.UserName = "Admin";
obj.Password = "Password";
obj.lessonIds = new int[] { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 };
obj.lessonNames= new string[] { "Spanish", "Maths" };
obj.Id= 43;
byte[] retByteArray = Crypto.Serialize(obj);

Student objNew = new Student ();
objNew = (Student )Crypto.Deserialize(retByteArray);

this code does not work. The error message is : Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation. End of Stream encountered before parsing was completed.

End my main aim is convert object into string but I even cannot convert it into byte array

Answer 1

You might be suffering from a race condition, because you're not closing the memory stream or your formatter when you're done serializing.

Try this:

public
static byte[] Serialize(Object o)
{
   using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream())
   {
       BinaryFormatter bf1 = new BinaryFormatter();
       bf1.Serialize(ms, o);
       byte[] buffer = ms.ToArray();
       //string retStr = Convert.ToBase64String(buffer);
   }
   return buffer;
}

public static object Deserialize(byte[] TheByteArray)
{
   //byte[] TheByteArray = Convert.FromBase64String(ParamStr);
   using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream(TheByteArray))
   {
       BinaryFormatter bf1 = new BinaryFormatter();
       ms.Position = 0;
       var result = bf1.Deserialize(ms);
   }
   return result;
}

Answer 2

I have just tried the original code and it work's fine however, you need to make sure that the student class definition is marked as [Serializable]

[Serializable]
public class Student
{
    public string UserName;
    public string Password;
    public int[] lessonIds;
    public string[] lessonNames;
    public int Id;
    public Student() { }
}

Answer 3

That code works perfectly for me (I simply added the missing Student class. Is that code actually representative of your real code. In particular, buffer handling (maybe file IO) would be my first suspicion. But the bug isn't in the code you posted... it works fine.

As an aside... BinaryFormatter can be brittle, especially around different versions - you may want to consider alternative serializers. Ask for more info if you are interested.

Here it is runnable:

using System.IO;
using System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary;
using System;
static class Crypto
{
    static byte[] Serialize(object o)
    {
        MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream();
        BinaryFormatter bf1 = new BinaryFormatter();
        bf1.Serialize(ms, o);
        byte[] buffer = ms.ToArray();
        //string retStr = Convert.ToBase64String(buffer);
        return buffer;
    }

    public static object Deserialize(byte[] TheByteArray)
    {
        //byte[] TheByteArray = Convert.FromBase64String(ParamStr);
        MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream(TheByteArray);
        BinaryFormatter bf1 = new BinaryFormatter();
        ms.Position = 0;
        return bf1.Deserialize(ms);
    }
    [Serializable]
    class Student
    {
        public string UserName { get; set; }
        public string Password { get; set; }
        public int[] LessonIds { get; set; }
        public string[] LessonNames { get; set; }
        public int Id { get; set; }
    }
    static void Main()
    {
        Student obj = new Student();
        obj.UserName = "Admin";
        obj.Password = "Password";
        obj.LessonIds = new int[] { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 };
        obj.LessonNames = new string[] { "Spanish", "Maths" };
        obj.Id = 43;
        byte[] retByteArray = Crypto.Serialize(obj);

        Student objNew = (Student)Crypto.Deserialize(retByteArray);
    }
}