Implementing ICloneable with protobuf-net

Question

Can you please explain why the following piece of code fails to work?

static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        var simpleObject = new SimpleObjectDTO { Id = 1, Name = "Jacob" };
        const string format = "{2} object properties are: Id {0} Name {1}";
        Console.WriteLine(format, simpleObject.Id, simpleObject.Name, "Original");
        var clone = simpleObject.Clone() as SimpleObjectDTO;
        // ReSharper disable PossibleNullReferenceException
        Console.WriteLine(format, clone.Id, clone.Name, "Clone");
        // ReSharper restore PossibleNullReferenceException
        Console.ReadLine();
    }

where

[ProtoContract]
public class SimpleObjectDTO  : ICloneable
{
    [ProtoMember(1)]
    public int Id { get; set; }
    [ProtoMember(2)]
    public string Name { get; set; }

    public object Clone()
    {
        using (var stream = new MemoryStream())
        {
            Serializer.Serialize(stream, this);
            stream.Flush();
            var clone = Serializer.Deserialize<SimpleObjectDTO>(stream);
            return clone;
        }            
    }
}

The code runs just fine but the deserialized object has 0 and an empty string as the appropriate properties' values.

Upd.: If I serialize into a binary file and then open if for reading thus creating a new stream the code works. Is there any possibility of avoiding intermediate binary files and using only one stream for both serializing and deserializing?

Answer 1

Figured out the issue, forgot to reset the memory stream's position

Answer 2

Thr problem is the stream's position needs to be reset to zero.

As an alternative:

return Serializer.DeepClone(this);