How to convert an unmanaged structure pointer to byte[] in c

Please help me to convert an unmanaged structure pointer to byte[] in c#?

public struct struct1
{
public byte a;
public int b;
}

struct1 objstruct= new struct1();
struct1* ptrStruct=&objstruct;
ptrStruct->a=1;
ptrStruct->b=4;

how can i convert ptrStruct to byte[]?

Do you mean that you want to convert the pointer itself to a byte array or the struct that it points to?

The following code does both. In the latter case, I've ignored the extra 3 bytes of padding which will bring the struct size up to 8 bytes:

using System;

public struct struct1

{

public byte a;

public int b;

}

class Program

{

unsafe static void Main()

{

struct1 objstruct = new struct1();

struct1* ptrStruct = &objstruct;

ptrStruct->a=1;

ptrStruct->b=4;

byte[] ba;

if(sizeof(struct1*) == 4)

{

ba = new byte[4];

uint ui = (uint)ptrStruct;

byte* pb = (byte*)&ui;

for(int i = 0; i < 4; i++) ba[i] = *pb++;

}

else

{

ba = new byte[8];

ulong ul = (ulong)ptrStruct;

byte* pb = (byte*)&ul;

for(int i = 0; i < 8; i++) ba[i] = *pb++;

}

Console.Write("pbStruct as a byte array is : ");

foreach(byte b in ba) Console.Write("{0:X2} ", b);

Console.Write("\n*pbStruct as a byte array is : ");

ba = new byte[5];

ba[0] = ptrStruct->a;

byte* pb2 = (byte*)&(ptrStruct->b);

for(int i = 1; i < 5; i++) ba[i] = *pb2++;

foreach(byte b in ba) Console.Write("{0:X2} ", b);

Console.ReadKey();

}

1 Reply

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Vulpes13y ago
Do you mean that you want to convert the pointer itself to a byte array or the struct that it points to?

The following code does both. In the latter case, I've ignored the extra 3 bytes of padding which will bring the struct size up to 8 bytes:

using System;

public struct struct1
{
public byte a;
public int b;
}

class Program
{
unsafe static void Main()
{
struct1 objstruct = new struct1();
struct1* ptrStruct = &objstruct;
ptrStruct->a=1;
ptrStruct->b=4;
byte[] ba;

if(sizeof(struct1*) == 4)
{
ba = new byte[4];
uint ui = (uint)ptrStruct;
byte* pb = (byte*)&ui;
for(int i = 0; i < 4; i++) ba[i] = *pb++;
}
else
{
ba = new byte[8];
ulong ul = (ulong)ptrStruct;
byte* pb = (byte*)&ul;
for(int i = 0; i < 8; i++) ba[i] = *pb++;
}

Console.Write("pbStruct as a byte array is : ");
foreach(byte b in ba) Console.Write("{0:X2} ", b);

Console.Write("\n*pbStruct as a byte array is : ");
ba = new byte[5];
ba[0] = ptrStruct->a;
byte* pb2 = (byte*)&(ptrStruct->b);
for(int i = 1; i < 5; i++) ba[i] = *pb2++;
foreach(byte b in ba) Console.Write("{0:X2} ", b);

Console.ReadKey();
}
}