1. Advanced .NET Programming II 6th Lecture
Pavel Ježek
Some of the slides are based on University of Linz .NET presentations.
© University of Linz, Institute for System Software, 2004
published under the Microsoft Curriculum License (

2. Serialization

3. System.Runtime.Serialization Serialization and Formatters
namespace System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary BinaryFormatter
namespace System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap assembly System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap SoapFormatter
Serializable objects:
Must have SerializableAttribute defined
All public and private member fields are serialized – this implies that all of them must be serializable, i.e. have SerializableAttribute defined
Fields with NonSerializedAttribute are excluded from default serialization
Can implement ISerializable interface to provide their custom serialization
public interface IFormatter {
void Serialize(Stream serializationStream, object graph);
object Deserialize(Stream serializationStream); … }

4. Example: Serialization
[Serializable]
public class TestSimpleObject {
int member1;
string member2;
string member3;
double member4;
[NonSerialized] string member5;
public TestSimpleObject()
member1 = 11;
member2 = "hello";
member3 = "hello";
member4 = ;
member5 = "hello world!"; }
[OnDeserializing]
public void SetDefaults(StreamingContext ctx) {
member5 = "DefaultValue";
public void Print()
Console.WriteLine("member1 = '{0}'", member1);
Console.WriteLine("member2 = '{0}'", member2);
Console.WriteLine("member3 = '{0}'", member3);
Console.WriteLine("member4 = '{0}'", member4);
Console.WriteLine("member5 = '{0}'", member5);

5. Example: Serialization, cont.
using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Runtime.Serialization;
using System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap;
public class Test {
public static void Main()
TestSimpleObject obj = new TestSimpleObject();
obj.Print();
Stream stream = File.Open("data.xml", FileMode.Create);
SoapFormatter formatter = new SoapFormatter();
formatter.Serialize(stream, obj);
stream.Close();
obj = null; //
stream = File.Open("data.xml", FileMode.Open);
obj = (TestSimpleObject) formatter.Deserialize(stream); }

6. Example: Serialization, cont.
Output of SoapFormatter:
<SOAP-ENV:Envelope …>
<SOAP-ENV:Body>
<a1:TestSimpleObject id="ref-1" xmlns:a1="
<member1>11</member1>
<member2 id="ref-3">hello</member2>
<member3 href="#ref-3"/>
<member4> </member4>
</a1:TestSimpleObject>
</SOAP-ENV:Body>
</SOAP-ENV:Envelope>
Output of BinaryFormatter: