Question

I am wondering how I (in C# or VB .NET) can save an object to a file.

It needs to be compatible with any type of object. How can I do this? Let’s say I want to save an object of the type “MyPersonClass”.

I am using the .NET 4.0 framework, with WPF.

Answer 1

If you are looking for some control and compatibility with non .NET applications, consider using the SoapFormatter class (as outlined in John Boker’s MSDN link) or XML serialisation. The latter works slightly differently from standard serialisation.

You require the XmlSerializer class:

System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer

To serialize MyPersonClass using XML serialisation, you will need instances of XmlSerializer and StreamWriter (in System.IO):

XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(MyPersonClass));
StreamWriter xmlFile = new StreamWriter(@"InsertFileName");
serializer.Serialize(xmlFile, classInstance);
xmlFile.Close();

I hope this is useful!