Saving multiple objects to binary file

Question

I'm trying to save multiple object that the user create to a binary file. So far I am able to create a binary file of one object.

 public class BinSerializerUtility
    {

        public void BinaryFileSerialize(object obj, string filePath)
        {
            FileStream fileStream = null;
            try
            {
                fileStream = new FileStream(filePath, FileMode.Create);
                BinaryFormatter b = new BinaryFormatter();
                b.Serialize(fileStream, obj);
            }
            catch
            {
                throw;
            }
            finally
            {
                if (fileStream != null)
                    fileStream.Close();
            }

        }

MainForm:

private void SaveToFile(string filename)
        {
            for (int index = 0; index < animalmgr.Count; index++)
            {
                Animal animal = animalmgr.GetAt(index);
                BinSerializerUtility BinSerial = new BinSerializerUtility();
                BinSerial.BinaryFileSerialize(animal, filename);

            }
        }

private void mnuFileSaveAs_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            //Show save-dialogbox
            if(saveFileDialog1.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)
            {
                string thefilename = saveFileDialog1.FileName;
                SaveToFile(thefilename);
            }
        }

I'm not really sure how to make it so it can save multiple objects to binary file. Do you have any tips?

I did try the following:

public byte[] SerializeArray(object obj)
        {
            byte[] serializedObject = null;
            MemoryStream memStream = null;

            try
            {
                memStream = new MemoryStream();
                BinaryFormatter binFormatter = new BinaryFormatter();

                binFormatter.Serialize(memStream, obj);
                memStream.Seek(0, 0);               //set position at 0,0
                serializedObject = memStream.ToArray();
            }
            finally
            {
                if (memStream != null)
                    memStream.Close();
            }

            return serializedObject;    // return the array.
        }

But the problem with it is that I don't know where to insert the fileName (The path)

DWright · Accepted Answer · 2015-04-15 01:53:33Z

1

You can modify BinaryFileSerialize to accept an array:

public void BinaryFileSerialize(object [] objs, string filePath). Then you can loop over that array to insert each item in the array:

FileStream fileStream = new FileStream(filePath, FileMode.Create);
BinaryFormatter b = new BinaryFormatter();
foreach(var obj in objs) {
    b.Serialize(fileStream, obj);
}

SaveToFile function:

private void SaveToFile(string filename)
{
    //Animal array
    Animal [] animals = new Animal[animalmgr.Count];
    for (int index = 0; index < animalmgr.Count; index++)
    {
        animals[index] = animalmgr.GetAt(index);
    }
    BinSerializerUtility BinSerial = new BinSerializerUtility();
    BinSerial.BinaryFileSerialize(animals, filename);
}

edited Apr 15, 2015 at 1:53

answered Apr 15, 2015 at 1:40

DWright

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