Reading a C/C++ data structure in C# from a byte array
- by Chris Miller
What would be the best way to fill a C# struct from a byte[] array where the data was from a C/C++ struct? The C struct would look something like this (my C is very rusty):
typedef OldStuff { CHAR Name[8]; UInt32 User; CHAR Location[8]; UInt32 TimeStamp; UInt32 Sequence; CHAR Tracking[16]; CHAR Filler[12];}
And would fill something like this:
[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Explicit, Size = 56, Pack = 1)]public struct NewStuff{ [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.ByValTStr, SizeConst = 8)] [FieldOffset(0)] public string Name; [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.U4)] [FieldOffset(8)] public uint User; [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.ByValTStr, SizeConst = 8)] [FieldOffset(12)] public string Location; [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.U4)] [FieldOffset(20)] public uint TimeStamp; [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.U4)] [FieldOffset(24)] public uint Sequence; [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.ByValTStr, SizeConst = 16)] [FieldOffset(28)] public string Tracking;}
What is best way to copy OldStuff to NewStuff, if OldStuff was passed as byte[] array?
I'm currently doing something like the following, but it feels kind of clunky.
GCHandle handle;NewStuff MyStuff;int BufferSize = Marshal.SizeOf(typeof(NewStuff));byte[] buff = new byte[BufferSize];Array.Copy(SomeByteArray, 0, buff, 0, BufferSize);handle = GCHandle.Alloc(buff, GCHandleType.Pinned);MyStuff = (NewStuff)Marshal.PtrToStructure(handle.AddrOfPinnedObject(), typeof(NewStuff));handle.Free();
Is there better way to accomplish this?