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Working with Arrays and Binary Files in C#

This exercise focuses on working with arrays and binary files in C#. You will create a program that allows you to dump the contents of an array into a binary file and restore the data from the file. The program demonstrates how to serialize and deserialize data using binary file handling in C#.



Group

Object Persistence in C#

Objective

1. Create a simple array of integers.
2. Implement a method to write the array data to a binary file.
3. Implement a method to read the array data from the binary file and restore it.
4. Display the array data before and after the restoration to ensure it works correctly.

Expand the exercise (tables + array) by adding two new methods to dump the data of the array into a binary file and restore the data from the file.

Example C# Exercise

 Copy C# Code 
using System;
using System.IO;

class Program
{
    // Method to dump the array data into a binary file
    static void DumpDataToFile(int[] array, string fileName)
    {
        // Creating a FileStream to write data to a file
        using (FileStream fs = new FileStream(fileName, FileMode.Create))
        {
            // Creating a BinaryWriter to write primitive data types to the file
            using (BinaryWriter writer = new BinaryWriter(fs))
            {
                // Writing the length of the array first
                writer.Write(array.Length);
                // Writing the array elements to the file
                foreach (int value in array)
                {
                    writer.Write(value);
                }
            }
        }
    }

    // Method to restore the array data from a binary file
    static int[] RestoreDataFromFile(string fileName)
    {
        // Creating a FileStream to read data from the file
        using (FileStream fs = new FileStream(fileName, FileMode.Open))
        {
            // Creating a BinaryReader to read the primitive data types from the file
            using (BinaryReader reader = new BinaryReader(fs))
            {
                // Reading the length of the array first
                int length = reader.ReadInt32();
                int[] array = new int[length];

                // Reading the array elements from the file
                for (int i = 0; i < length; i++)
                {
                    array[i] = reader.ReadInt32();
                }
                return array;
            }
        }
    }

    static void Main()
    {
        // Creating an example array
        int[] numbers = { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 };

        // File name where the data will be stored
        string fileName = "arrayData.bin";

        // Dumping the array data into the binary file
        DumpDataToFile(numbers, fileName);
        Console.WriteLine("Data dumped to binary file.");

        // Restoring the array data from the binary file
        int[] restoredArray = RestoreDataFromFile(fileName);
        Console.WriteLine("Data restored from binary file:");

        // Displaying the restored array
        foreach (int number in restoredArray)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(number);
        }
    }
}

 Output

Data dumped to binary file.
Data restored from binary file:
1
2
3
4
5

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