When parsing or storing data in binary file formats, the functionality offered by the default .NET BinaryReader and BinaryWriter classes is often insufficient. It lacks support for a different byte order than the system one, and cannot parse specific string or date formats (most prominently, 0-terminated strings instead of the default variable-length prefixed .NET strings).

Further, navigating in binary files is slightly tedious when it is required to skip to another chunk in the file and then navigate back. Also, aligning to specific block sizes might be a common task.

The Syroot.BinaryData NuGet package adds all this and more functionality by offering a large set of extension methods for the Stream class of .NET 4.5 and .NET Standard 2.0. BinaryDataReader and BinaryDataWriter classes are provided, usable like the default .NET BinaryReader and BinaryWriter so that new functionality can be added almost instantly to existing projects.

The Syroot.BinaryData.Serialization package can serialize and deserialize complete class hierarchies without any further code required.

The library is available in the following NuGet packages:

Core functionality:

• Syroot.BinaryData (unsigned, released as beta)
• Syroot.BinaryData.Signed (signed assembly, released as beta)

Serialization functionality (adds the core package dependency):

• Syroot.BinaryData.Serialization (unsigned, to be released)
• Syroot.BinaryData.Serialization.Signed (signed assembly, to be released)

The previous Syroot.IO.BinaryData package has been split into the core and the serialization packages mentioned above. Beyond many new features, several breaking changes were made. Please have a look at the most recent release notes for more info.

• A code-oriented feature tour is available on the wiki.
• Complete MSDN-style API documentation is hosted on docs.syroot.com.