c# - Serializing/deserializing with memory stream

Question

I'm having an issue with serializing using memory stream. Here is my code:

/// <summary>
/// serializes the given object into memory stream
/// </summary>
/// <param name="objectType">the object to be serialized</param>
/// <returns>The serialized object as memory stream</returns>
public static MemoryStream SerializeToStream(object objectType)
{
    MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream();
    IFormatter formatter = new BinaryFormatter();
    formatter.Serialize(stream, objectType);
    return stream;
}

/// <summary>
/// deserializes as an object
/// </summary>
/// <param name="stream">the stream to deserialize</param>
/// <returns>the deserialized object</returns>
public static object DeserializeFromStream(MemoryStream stream)
{
    IFormatter formatter = new BinaryFormatter();
    stream.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin);
    object objectType = formatter.Deserialize(stream);
    return objectType;
} 

The error I'm getting is as follow: stream is not a valid binary format. The starting contents (in bytes) are: blah....

I'm not exactly sure what is causing the error. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Example of the call:

Dog myDog = new Dog();
myDog.Name= "Foo";
myDog.Color = DogColor.Brown;

MemoryStream stream = SerializeToStream(myDog)

Dog newDog = (Dog)DeserializeFromStream(stream);

Answer 1

This code works for me:

public void Run()
{
    Dog myDog = new Dog();
    myDog.Name= "Foo";
    myDog.Color = DogColor.Brown;

    System.Console.WriteLine("{0}", myDog.ToString());

    MemoryStream stream = SerializeToStream(myDog);

    Dog newDog = (Dog)DeserializeFromStream(stream);

    System.Console.WriteLine("{0}", newDog.ToString());
}

Where the types are like this:

[Serializable]
public enum DogColor
{
    Brown,
    Black,
    Mottled
}

[Serializable]
public class Dog
{
    public String Name
    {
        get; set;
    }

    public DogColor Color
    {
        get;set;
    }

    public override String ToString()
    {
        return String.Format("Dog: {0}/{1}", Name, Color);
    }
}

and the utility methods are:

public static MemoryStream SerializeToStream(object o)
{
    MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream();
    IFormatter formatter = new BinaryFormatter();
    formatter.Serialize(stream, o);
    return stream;
}

public static object DeserializeFromStream(MemoryStream stream)
{
    IFormatter formatter = new BinaryFormatter();
    stream.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin);
    object o = formatter.Deserialize(stream);
    return o;
}