Writing a structure to a file.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mufasa
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Mufasa

How can I write a structure to a file? I've tried serializing a class but
that's way to big. I need it to be as small as possible. It's only three
elements - a datetime, int and a float.

TIA - Jeff.
 
How can I write a structure to a file? I've tried serializing a class but
that's way to big. I need it to be as small as possible. It's only three
elements - a datetime, int and a float.

TIA - Jeff.
Click to expand...

Did you try serializing the struct without enclosing class?
Or iterate through struct elements and write name=value pairs to the
file yourself...
 
Jeff,

Well, you can do exactly that, but it would be a custom serialization
method based on record position, not on keyed values. It might be great for
performance, but extensibility is minimal, if non-existant.

If the format doesn't have to be readable, then convert everything to
bytes (using the ByteConverter class) and then write the bytes to the file.
 
How can I write a structure to a file? I've tried serializing a class but
that's way to big. I need it to be as small as possible. It's only three
elements - a datetime, int and a float.
Click to expand...

Are you in complete control of this file? Is it a "binary" file (i.e., it
can contain any byte value from 0 - 255)? If so, then write them yourself.

For the DateTime, use the ToBinary() method to get a long which represents
the date. You can recreate your DateTime when reading the file by--what
else?--FromBinary()!
 
Mufasa said:
How can I write a structure to a file? I've tried serializing a class
but that's way to big. I need it to be as small as possible. It's only
three elements - a datetime, int and a float.
Click to expand...

BinaryWriter and BinaryReader should be the most efficient
format.

If you really need to decrease size and are willing to burn
some CPU, then you can wrap them around a GZipStream instead
of just a FileStream.

Arne
 
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