C# Serialising an array of structs

[dans]

I want to serialise an array of structs into a MemoryStream so I can pass the contents in a message.

I have written something that will Serialize and Deserialize in individual object. Is there a way of reading from the MemoryStream back into an array? Can I serialize an array directly without iterating?

My test code:

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Runtime.Serialization;
using System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary;
 
[Serializable]
public struct SConnection
{
  private int m_handle;
  public int handle {
    get {
      return m_handle;
    }
  }
 
  private string m_name;
  public string name {
    get {
      return m_name;
    }
  }
 
  public SConnection(int handle, string name)
    {
      m_handle = handle;
      m_name = name;
    }
 
  public int Length {
    get {
      return m_name.Length + 11;
    }
  }
 
  public override string ToString()
  {
    return string.Format("0x{0:X8}\t{1}", m_handle, m_name);;
  }
}
 
class Test
{
 
  public static void Main(string[] args)
  {
    SConnection con1 = new SConnection(1234,"foo");
    SConnection con2 = new SConnection(5678,"bar");
 
 
    Console.WriteLine (con1.ToString());
    Console.WriteLine (con2.ToString());
 
    BinaryFormatter bf = new BinaryFormatter();
 
    MemoryStream mem_strm = new MemoryStream();
    Console.WriteLine(
                      "Capacity = {0}, Length = {1}, Position = {2}\n",
                      mem_strm.Capacity.ToString(), 
                      mem_strm.Length.ToString(), 
                      mem_strm.Position.ToString());
 
 
    bf.Serialize(mem_strm, con1);
 
    // Write the stream properties to the console.
    Console.WriteLine(
                      "Capacity = {0}, Length = {1}, Position = {2}\n",
                      mem_strm.Capacity.ToString(), 
                      mem_strm.Length.ToString(), 
                      mem_strm.Position.ToString());
 
    bf.Serialize(mem_strm, con2);
 
    // Write the stream properties to the console.
    Console.WriteLine(
                      "Capacity = {0}, Length = {1}, Position = {2}\n",
                      mem_strm.Capacity.ToString(), 
                      mem_strm.Length.ToString(), 
                      mem_strm.Position.ToString());
 
    mem_strm.Seek(0,0);
    SConnection new_con = new SConnection();
 
    new_con = (SConnection)bf.Deserialize(mem_strm);
    Console.WriteLine (new_con.ToString());
    new_con = (SConnection)bf.Deserialize(mem_strm);
    Console.WriteLine (new_con.ToString());
 
    mem_strm.Seek(0,0);
    SConnection[] new_con_arry = new SConnection[3];
    new_con_arry = (SConnection[])bf.Deserialize(mem_strm);
    foreach(SConnection sc1 in new_con_arry){
      Console.WriteLine ("\t{0}", sc1.ToString());
    }
  }
}
 

thanks

dan