This is an updated version for .NET 4.5 and newer using async/await and IEnumerables:
public static class CompressionExtensions
{
public static async Task<IEnumerable<byte>> Zip(this object obj)
{
byte[] bytes = obj.Serialize();
using (MemoryStream msi = new MemoryStream(bytes))
using (MemoryStream mso = new MemoryStream())
{
using (var gs = new GZipStream(mso, CompressionMode.Compress))
await msi.CopyToAsync(gs);
return mso.ToArray().AsEnumerable();
}
}
public static async Task<object> Unzip(this byte[] bytes)
{
using (MemoryStream msi = new MemoryStream(bytes))
using (MemoryStream mso = new MemoryStream())
{
using (var gs = new GZipStream(msi, CompressionMode.Decompress))
{
// Sync example:
//gs.CopyTo(mso);
// Async way (take care of using async keyword on the method definition)
await gs.CopyToAsync(mso);
}
return mso.ToArray().Deserialize();
}
}
}
public static class SerializerExtensions
{
public static byte[] Serialize<T>(this T objectToWrite)
{
using (MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream())
{
BinaryFormatter binaryFormatter = new BinaryFormatter();
binaryFormatter.Serialize(stream, objectToWrite);
return stream.GetBuffer();
}
}
public static async Task<T> _Deserialize<T>(this byte[] arr)
{
using (MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream())
{
BinaryFormatter binaryFormatter = new BinaryFormatter();
await stream.WriteAsync(arr, 0, arr.Length);
stream.Position = 0;
return (T)binaryFormatter.Deserialize(stream);
}
}
public static async Task<object> Deserialize(this byte[] arr)
{
object obj = await arr._Deserialize<object>();
return obj;
}
}
With this you can serialize everything BinaryFormatter supports, instead only of strings.
Edit:
In case, you need take care of Encoding, you could just use Convert.ToBase64String(byte[])...