Best way to remove extra zeroes in byte array

Question

I am making a serialization code and I´m trying to make the byte output smallest as possible.

My approach is packing zero bytes like this:

ex: D3 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 28 85 (12 bytes)
turns into 09(zero array length) 01 (offset) D3 28 85 (5 bytes)

My question is: There any efficient way to do this? I use a List to store and concatenate byte arrays, and the data have a "Header" to identify what kind of data the byte array are. Just stuck in this.

Suggestions?

Edit: An approach I have to this with code is:

bool start = false;
byte offsetStart = 0; 
byte offsetEnd = 0;
for(int i = 0; i < array.Length; i++)
{
    if(array[i] == 0 && !start)
    {
         offsetstart == (byte)i;
         start = true;
    } 
    else if (array[i] != 0 && start)
    {
         offsetend == (byte)i;
         start = false;
    }

    if(offsetEnd - offsetStart <= //Some length ) return array;
    else 
    {
        byte arrayLength = offsetEnd - offsetStart;
        return arrayLength + offsetStart + 
        Array.Take(offsetStart).Skip(ArrayLength).Take(array.Length - offsetEnd);

    }
}

Answer 1

You should go for a simple protocol. Create something like a header. For example. Start with a byte which indicates if you're starting with Zero's (0) or NonZero's (1) . Zero's will be compressed, non-zero's not. So the first byte will be a zero or one. The second byte contains the count. If it were zero's, just write nothing, if it were non-zero's the values will be behind it.

Example:

[0][10][1][10]1234567891[0][10]
[0][9][1][12]123456789123[0][9]

So when decompressing:

[0][10] means, add 10 zero's, 
[1][10]1234567891 means, add 10 non-zero's, followed by the values
[0][9]  means, add 9 zero's, 
[1][12]123456789123 means,add 12 non-zero's, followed by the values

This way the zero's aren't "saved". It is easily to compress and decompress.

If you have some difficulty writing the code, i'll add some.