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binary formatter to string

BinaryFormatter formatter = new BinaryFormatter();
using (MemoryStream m = new MemoryStream())
{
formatter.Serialize(m, list);
StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(m);
HiddenField1.Value = sr.ReadToEnd();
}
i'm getting a blank value for HiddenField1.Value. Not sure what I'm doing is even possible? list is definitely populated (is a List<T>)

Depending on what you want to achieve... One option is to show content of the binary stream as Base64 string:
var memoryStream = new MemoryStream();
using(memoryStream)
{
formatter.Serialize(memoryStream, list);
}
HiddenField1.Value = Convert.ToBase64String(memoryStream.ToArray());

Change it to:
BinaryFormatter formatter = new BinaryFormatter();
using (MemoryStream m = new MemoryStream())
{
formatter.Serialize(m, list);
m.Position = 0;
StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(m);
HiddenField1.Value = sr.ReadToEnd();
}
You need to reset the position of the stream back to the beginning before reading it. Also, you shouldn't use StreamReader to convert a binary stream like this to text, because it will break in unexpected ways. If you want the results in a text-like format, use Convert.ToBase64String as in #Alexei's answer.

Convert String to System.IO.Stream [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
How do I generate a stream from a string?
(12 answers)
Closed 9 years ago.
I need to convert a String to System.IO.Stream type to pass to another method.
I tried this unsuccessfully.
Stream stream = new StringReader(contents);

Try this:
// convert string to stream
byte[] byteArray = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(contents);
//byte[] byteArray = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(contents);
MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream(byteArray);
and
// convert stream to string
StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(stream);
string text = reader.ReadToEnd();

To convert a string to a stream you need to decide which encoding the bytes in the stream should have to represent that string - for example you can:
MemoryStream mStrm= new MemoryStream( Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes( contents ) );
MSDN references:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ds4kkd55%28v=VS.100%29.aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/e55f3s5k.aspx

System.IO.MemoryStream mStream = new System.IO.MemoryStream(System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes( contents));

string str = "asasdkopaksdpoadks";
byte[] data = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(str);
MemoryStream stm = new MemoryStream(data, 0, data.Length);

this is old but for help :
you can also use the stringReader stream
string str = "asasdkopaksdpoadks";
StringReader TheStream = new StringReader( str );

Quick way to get the contents of a MemoryStream as an ASCII string

I have a JSON string in a MemoryStream. I am using the following code to get it out as an ASCII string:
MemoryStream memstream = new MemoryStream();
/* Write a JSON string to memstream here */
byte[] jsonBytes = new byte[memstream.Length];
memstream.Read(jsonBytes, 0, (int)memstream.Length);
string jsonString = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(jsonBytes);
What is a shorter/shortest way to do this?

You could use the ToArray method:
using (var stream = new MemoryStream())
{
/* Write a JSON string to stream here */
string jsonString = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetString(stream.ToArray());
}

new StreamReader(memstream, Encoding.ASCII).ReadToEnd()

Xml Serialization / Deserialization Problem

After writing and reading an xml string to and from a stream, it ceases to be deserializable. The new string is clipped.
string XmlContent = getContentFromMyDataBase();
XmlSerializer xs = new XmlSerializer(typeof(MyObj));
MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream();
StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(ms);
char[] ca = XmlContent.ToCharArray(); // still working up to this point.
ms.Position = 0;
sw.Write(ca);
StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(ms);
ms.Position = 0;
string XmlContentAgain = sr.ReadToEnd();
Console.WriteLine(XmlContentAgain); // (outputstring is too short.)
MyObj theObj = (MyObj)xs.Deserialize(ms); // Can't deserialize.
Any suggestions as to how to fix this or what is causing the problem? My only guess is that there is some form of encoding issue, but I wouldn't know how to go about finding/fixing it.
Additionally, myObj has a generic dictionary member, which typically isn't serializable, so I have stolen code from Paul Welter in order to serialize it.

Try flushing and disposing or even better simplify your code using a StringReader:
string xmlContent = getContentFromMyDataBase();
var xs = new XmlSerializer(typeof(MyObj));
using (var reader = new StringReader(xmlContent))
{
var theObj = (MyObj)xs.Deserialize(reader);
}
Note: The getContentFromMyDataBase method also suggests that you are storing XML in your database that you are deserializing back to an object. Don't.

You need to Flush or Close (closing implicitly flushes) the StreamWriter, or you cannot be sure it is done writing to the underlying stream. This is because it is doing some internal buffering.
Try this:
using(StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(ms))
{
char[] ca = XmlContent.ToCharArray(); // still working up to this point.
ms.Position = 0;
sw.Write(ca);
}
StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(ms);
ms.Position = 0;
string XmlContentAgain = sr.ReadToEnd();

C# Object Binary Serialization

I want to make a binary serialize of an object and the result to save it in a database.
Person person = new Person();
person.Name = "something";
MemoryStream memorystream = new MemoryStream();
BinaryFormatter bf = new BinaryFormatter();
bf.Serialize(memorystream, person);
How can I transform memorystream in a string type to be saved in database, and after this to be able to deserialize the object?

What you're really asking for is a safe way of representing arbitrary binary data as text and then converting it back again. The fact that it stores a serialized object is irrelevant.
The answer is almost to use Base 64 (e.g. Convert.ToBase64String and Convert.FromBase64String). Do not use Encoding.UTF8.GetString or anything similar - your binary data is not encoded text data, and shouldn't be treated as such.
However, does your database not have a data type for binary data? Check for BLOB, IMAGE and BINARY types...

Here's the sample. TData must be marked [Serializable] and all fields type also.
private static TData DeserializeFromString<TData>(string settings)
{
byte[] b = Convert.FromBase64String(settings);
using (var stream = new MemoryStream(b))
{
var formatter = new BinaryFormatter();
stream.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin);
return (TData)formatter.Deserialize(stream);
}
}
private static string SerializeToString<TData>(TData settings)
{
using (var stream = new MemoryStream())
{
var formatter = new BinaryFormatter();
formatter.Serialize(stream, settings);
stream.Flush();
stream.Position = 0;
return Convert.ToBase64String(stream.ToArray());
}
}

//-------write to database-------------------------
Person person = new Person();
person.name = "Firstnm Lastnm";
MemoryStream memorystream = new MemoryStream();
BinaryFormatter bf = new BinaryFormatter();
bf.Serialize(memorystream, person);
byte[] yourBytesToDb = memorystream.ToArray();
//here you write yourBytesToDb to database
//----------read from database---------------------
//here you read from database binary data into yourBytesFromDb
MemoryStream memorystreamd = new MemoryStream(yourBytesFromDb);
BinaryFormatter bfd = new BinaryFormatter();
Person deserializedperson = bfd.Deserialize(memorystreamd) as Person;

I used something like this
MemoryStream memoryStream = new MemoryStream();
BinaryFormatter binaryFormatter = new BinaryFormatter();
binaryFormatter.Serialize(memoryStream, Person);
memoryStream.Flush();
memoryStream.Position = 0;
string value = Convert.ToBase64String(memoryStream.ToArray());

Basically, don't save the data as string to the database, there are blob fields available to store binary data.
If you really need to have the data as string, you'll need to convert your byte[] to a string using base64 encoding, and to grab the byte[] from a string use decoding.

Have you not looked into converting the memorystream into a base64hex string to be put into the database?
byte[] mStream = memorystream.ToArray();
string sConvertdHex = System.Convert.ToBase64String(mStream)
Then you can dump the contents sConvertdHex to the database. To deserialize it you need to do the reverse
byte[] mData = System.Convert.FromBase64String(...)
then deserialize mData back to your object.