BinaryData

When parsing or storing data of binary file formats or protocols, the default .NET functionality is often insufficient. Classes like BinaryReader or BinaryWriter lack support for a different byte order (endianness) than the system one. Strings are typically stored with a length-prefix other than common 0 terminating bytes. Navigation inside Stream instances may be uncomfortable.

The Syroot.BinaryData libraries fill these gaps by providing the following features:

• Different byte order (endianness), supporting big and little endian the same way.
• Many String formats like 0-termianted strings or UInt16 length prefixes.
• Several Boolean and DateTime formats (like 4-byte booleans or CTime's time_t integer).
• Strongly typed support for saving enum values and checking them for validity.
• Performant and simple parsing of data available in (ReadOnly)Span<byte> instances.
• Advanced Stream navigation features like temporary seeks, simulated seeks, or (negative) alignments.
• Serializing and deserializing any class into a binary format.

A quick feature tour is given in the following articles. For the full API documentation, consult the reference from the navigation bar on the left.