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I'd like to reduce the message size when sending serialized integer over the network. In the below section buff.Length is 256 - to great an overhead to be efficient! How it can be reduced to the minimum (4 bytes + minimum overhead)?

            int val = RollDice(6);
            // Should 'memoryStream' be allocated each time!
            MemoryStream memoryStream = new MemoryStream();
            BinaryFormatter formatter = new BinaryFormatter();
            formatter.Serialize(memoryStream, val);
            byte[] buff = memoryStream.GetBuffer();

Thanks in advance, --- KostaZ

KostaZ
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  • formatter.Serialize(memoryStream, val, Nothing) ? – alexander Mar 24 '12 at 17:31
  • Why are you serializing to memory when the destination is the network? Serialize straight to the network, then the network is supplying the memory instead of your CPU. – user207421 Mar 25 '12 at 09:40

1 Answers1

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Have a look at protobuf.net...it is a very good serialization lib (you can get it on NuGet). Also, ideally you should be using a "using" statement around your memory stream.

To respond to the comment below, then the most efficient method depends on your use case. If you know exactly what you need to serialize and don't need a general purpose serializer then you could write your own binary formatter, which might have no overhead at all (there is some detail here custom formatters).

This link has a comparison of the BinaryFormatter and protobuf.net for your reference.

Mike Hanrahan
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  • Yeah, it is good. But could you post some link that will state that primitive values would have a lower overhead in PB? Downvoted. – om-nom-nom Mar 24 '12 at 17:18
  • Fair point. I don't know that it would have a lower value, but I guess my point is that it is a better (IMO) serialization lib than the binary formatter. The overhead is going to be dependent on the serializion lib, so I guess he could implment his own serialization formatter that would achieve 4bytes plus "minimum" (which could be nothing if he is only serializing integers) then that would be the best method, but for a general purpose answer to "minimize serialized data" I would suggest protobuf.net. – Mike Hanrahan Mar 24 '12 at 17:23
  • there is also [dotnet-protobufs](https://github.com/jskeet/dotnet-protobufs) by Jon Skeet – om-nom-nom Mar 24 '12 at 17:29