BinaryBuffers 5.1.0

BinaryBuffers

BinaryBuffers offers a highly performant implementation of BinaryReader and BinaryWriter, working directly on a byte array or ReadOnlyMemory<byte>, thus eliminating the need for an intermediate Stream object.

How to use

The library provides three types:

• BinaryBufferReader — reads primitive data types from a byte[].
• BinaryBufferWriter — writes primitive data types to a byte[].
• BinaryBufferMemoryReader — reads primitive data types from a ReadOnlyMemory<byte>.

// Provide a buffer to the reader/writer
var buffer = new byte[100];

// Write to the buffer
var writer = new BinaryBufferWriter(buffer);

writer.Write(2026);
writer.Write(8.11);

// Read from the buffer
var reader = new BinaryBufferReader(buffer);

var year = reader.ReadInt32();
var time = reader.ReadDouble();

Bulk reading

When you need to read a run of values of the same type — e.g. a block of ints — ReadInto<T> reads them all in a single bounds-checked bulk copy instead of one call per element. On little-endian platforms it compiles down to a single memcpy, which is dramatically faster than calling ReadInt32() in a loop (see Benchmarks):

var reader = new BinaryBufferReader(buffer);

var values = new int[128];
reader.ReadInto<int>(values);   // reads 128 consecutive Int32s in one shot

There is also a generic single-value Read<T>() for any unmanaged type:

var year = reader.Read<int>();
var time = reader.Read<double>();

Both APIs are intended for primitive numeric types. On big-endian platforms each value is byte-swapped, which is correct for integer and floating-point types but not for composite layouts such as decimal (use the dedicated ReadDecimal() for those).

Reading from a ReadOnlyMemory<byte>

When your data lives in a ReadOnlyMemory<byte>, use BinaryBufferMemoryReader:

ReadOnlyMemory<byte> memory = buffer;

var reader = new BinaryBufferMemoryReader(memory);

var year = reader.ReadInt32();
var time = reader.ReadDouble();

Constructor overloads

BinaryBufferReader and BinaryBufferWriter can both be constrained to a sub-region of the underlying array by supplying an offset and length:

// Read/write within the boundaries [offset, offset + length)
var reader = new BinaryBufferReader(buffer, offset: 10, length: 40);
var writer = new BinaryBufferWriter(buffer, offset: 10, length: 40);

BinaryBufferReader additionally accepts an ArraySegment<byte>, which carries its own offset and count:

var segment = new ArraySegment<byte>(buffer, 10, 40);
var reader = new BinaryBufferReader(segment);

BinaryBufferMemoryReader is constructed from a ReadOnlyMemory<byte>; slice the memory beforehand to read from a sub-region:

var reader = new BinaryBufferMemoryReader(memory.Slice(10, 40));

Benchmarks

Benchmarks show an average of 80% improvement in reading and 84% in writing.

Performance tests were executed using .NET 10 running on a machine with a 16-core CPU.

BinaryBufferReader

Reading a block of 128 Int32s, bulk ReadInto<int> vs. a per-element ReadInt32() loop:

BinaryBufferWriter