How to Efficiently Convert a C/C Data Structure from a Byte Array to a C# Struct?

Read C/C data structure from byte array to C#

This article describes how to fill byte array data derived from C/C structures into C# structures.

Using GCHandle and Marshal

This method is divided into three steps:

1. Use GCHandle.Alloc to fix the location of the byte array in memory.
2. Use Marshal.PtrToStructure to convert a fixed memory address to a NewStuff instance.
3. Once the conversion is complete, use handle.Free() to release GCHandle.

Simplified code:

<code class="language-csharp">NewStuff ByteArrayToNewStuff(byte[] bytes)
{
    GCHandle handle = GCHandle.Alloc(bytes, GCHandleType.Pinned);
    NewStuff stuff;
    try
    {
        stuff = (NewStuff)Marshal.PtrToStructure(handle.AddrOfPinnedObject(), typeof(NewStuff));
    }
    finally
    {
        handle.Free();
    }
    return stuff;
}</code>

Generic version:

<code class="language-csharp">T ByteArrayToStructure<T>(byte[] bytes) where T : struct
{
    T stuff;
    GCHandle handle = GCHandle.Alloc(bytes, GCHandleType.Pinned);
    try
    {
        stuff = (T)Marshal.PtrToStructure(handle.AddrOfPinnedObject(), typeof(T));
    }
    finally
    {
        handle.Free();
    }
    return stuff;
}</code>

More simplified version (requires unsafe code block):

<code class="language-csharp">unsafe T ByteArrayToStructure<T>(byte[] bytes) where T : struct
{
    fixed (byte* ptr = &bytes[0])
    {
        return (T)Marshal.PtrToStructure((IntPtr)ptr, typeof(T));
    }
}</code>

BinaryReader method

Using BinaryReader may not be more performant than the Marshal method. Both methods require the data to be correctly laid out and sized to be successfully converted into a NewStuff structure.

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