Convert Byte Array into List Windows phone 8 - windows-phone-8

Question

I am using this piece of code to convert List into byte array but again I want to convert to this data into List how it is possible.
List<String> stringlist = new List<String>();
stringlist.Add("Oye Oye");
stringlist.Add("Hello hello");
byte[] byteArr = stringlist.SelectMany(s => System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(s)).ToArray();

Answer 1

In your example it isn't possible, because you have no way to tell where a string ends and where the next one starts. It would be possible by using a separator (the character \0 is often used to indicate the end of a string):
List<String> stringlist = new List<String>();
stringlist.Add("Oye Oye");
stringlist.Add("Hello hello");
byte[] byteArr = stringlist.SelectMany(s => System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(s + '\0').ToArray();
You can then retrieve your list by using the Split method:
var stringList = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(byteArr, 0, byteArr.Length).Split('\0');
But overall I don't think it's a good idea. Depending on what you need, I'd rather recommend to use the DataContractSerializer to convert your array to bytes:
var serializer = new System.Runtime.Serialization.DataContractSerializer(typeof(List<string>));
byte[] byteArr;
using (var ms = new System.IO.MemoryStream())
{
serializer.WriteObject(ms, stringlist);
byteArr = ms.ToArray();
}
And to convert it back:
using (var ms = new System.IO.MemoryStream(byteArr))
{
stringlist = (Sserializer.ReadObject(ms);
}