Serialize/Deserialize an object for passing through Windows Azure Queue

ByteArraySerializer.cs

using System.IO;
using System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary;

// Alternative (not related to this code, but in case you want to serialize to XML
// instead): http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/csharplanguage/thread/5d08bc28-5b61-4c5a-8c4b-4665b1c929ea/

// Usage example
// NOTE: The Windows Azure CloudQueueMessage constructor accepts either a string
//       or a byte array. If a byte array is passed in, it is Base64 encoded.
//       Base64 encoding results in approx a 1/3 payload size penalty (so the
//       payload is 4/3 of size of binary). The maximum size of single message for a
//       Windows Azure Storage queue is 64 KB. (Versus 256 KB for ServiceBus queues.)
//
// The AppSpecificMessage class and the GetAppSpecificMessage and CreateCloudQueueMessage
//       helper functions serve to illustrate how to create simple helpers that use the
//       more generic classes shown below.
 
public CloudQueueMessage CreateCloudQueueMessage(AppSpecificMessage msg)
{
   return new CloudQueueMessage(ByteArraySerializer<AppSpecificMessage>.Serialize(msg));
}

public AppSpecificMessage GetAppSpecificMessage(CloudQueueMessage cloudQueueMessage)
{
   return ByteArraySerializer<AppSpecificMessage>.
      Deserialize(cloudQueueMessage.AsBytes);
}

namespace DevPartners.Azure
{
   public static class ByteArraySerializer<T>
   {
      public static byte[] Serialize(T m)
      {
         var ms = new MemoryStream();
         try
         {
            var formatter = new BinaryFormatter();
            formatter.Serialize(ms, m);
            return ms.ToArray();
         }
         finally
         {
            ms.Close();
         }
      }

      public static T Deserialize(byte[] byteArray)
      {
         var ms = new MemoryStream(byteArray);
         try
         {
            var formatter = new BinaryFormatter();
            return (T)formatter.Deserialize(ms);
         }
         finally
         {
            ms.Close();
         }
      }
   }
}