Convert object to byte

Question

I want to convert an object, to a byte with silverlight.

So, first I found this : convert object(i.e any object like person, employee) to byte[] in silverlight

But this is not working(any of the answers), the dll proto seems not to be good.

Plus, i tried this:

System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer serializer = new System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer(typeof(Address));
            StringBuilder stringBuilder = new StringBuilder();
            using (StringWriter writer = new StringWriter(stringBuilder))
            {
                serializer.Serialize(writer, address);
            }

            System.Text.UTF8Encoding encoding = new System.Text.UTF8Encoding();
            byte[] data = encoding.GetBytes(stringBuilder.ToString());

But I got a result in the byte.

What I receive is an object byte[0] , and I just want to verify his lenght is 0 or more. I cannot do tihs with an object, and that's why I tried to convert it. But the byte in result is different from byte[0]

How can I do what I want? Just a comparison to 0.

Answer 1

After reading again your question, if the object is already a byte[] simply cast it:

object yourObject = xxx();
byte[] data = (byte[])yourObject;
bool hasData = data != null && data.Length > 0;

Answer 2

If you like there is also the MemoryStream object which convert object to byte[] and byte[] to object