Question

In Delphi, one can do the following:

var
  ms  : TMemoryStream;
  i   : Integer;
begin
  ms := TMemoryStream.Create;
  i := 1024;
  ms.Write(@i, SizeOf(Integer));
  ms.Free;
end;

This will write the memory contents of i into ms.

The .Net version of MemoryStream doesn’t have such a feature (neither the managed nor unmanaged versions). I know .Net doesn’t work on the same principles as Delphi in this regard.

How does one do this in C#? I am interested in the “best practice” and the fastest methods.

Answer 1

Try using BinaryWriter on top of MemoryStream:

MemoryStream memoryStream = new MemoryStream(); 
BinaryWriter writer = new BinaryWriter(memoryStream);
writer.Write((int)123);

Note: don’t forget to Dispose streams and writers/readers in real code, i.e. by using .