How do I save a MWArray object to a file after calling a MATLAB-compiled library in a .NET application?

I have an operational C# application that uses ".dll" libraries compiled through MATLAB R2020b. The libraries work, and they return a "MWArray" object when finished. How can I save this "MWArray" object in a file and then load it back later?

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

Regarding saving a "MWArray" variable in an external file, it is possible to directly serialize the variable into a file and then deserialize it back.

As an example, assume that the following "MWStructArray" object is created:

MWStructArray myStructArray = new MWStructArray(1, 2, new String[2] { "field1", "field2" });
myStructArray["field1", 1, 1] = new MWCharArray(new string[3] { "Hello world", "Hello world 2", "Hello world 3" });
myStructArray["field2", 1, 1] = (MWNumericArray)(new double[3] { 1, 2, 3 });
myStructArray["field1", 1, 2] = new MWCharArray(new string[2] { "Hello world 4", "Hello world 5"});
myStructArray["field2", 1, 2] = (MWNumericArray)(new double[2] { 4, 5 });

You can directly serialize the object into a file and then deserialize it back with the following code:

Stream SaveFileStream = File.Create("mydata.txt");
BinaryFormatter serializer = new BinaryFormatter();
serializer.Serialize(SaveFileStream, myStructArray);
SaveFileStream.Close();
if (File.Exists("mydata.txt"))
{
    Stream openFileStream = File.OpenRead("mydata.txt");
    BinaryFormatter deserializer = new BinaryFormatter();
    MWStructArray myStructArray2 = (MWStructArray)deserializer.Deserialize(openFileStream);
    openFileStream.Close();
    System.Console.WriteLine(myStructArray2["field2", 1]);
    System.Console.WriteLine(myStructArray2["field2", 2]);
}

The above workflow can be applied to any type of "MWArray" object.