Question

I have a list of objects and I need to save that somewhere in my computer. I have read some forums and I know that the object has to be Serializable. But it would be nice if I can get an example. For example if I have the following:

[Serializable]
public class SomeClass
{
     public string someProperty { get; set; }
}

SomeClass object1 = new SomeClass { someProperty = "someString" };

But how can I store object1 somewhere in my computer and later retrieve?

Answer 1

You can use the following:

    /// <summary>
    /// Serializes an object.
    /// </summary>
    /// <typeparam name="T"></typeparam>
    /// <param name="serializableObject"></param>
    /// <param name="fileName"></param>
    public void SerializeObject<T>(T serializableObject, string fileName)
    {
        if (serializableObject == null) { return; }

        try
        {
            XmlDocument xmlDocument = new XmlDocument();
            XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(serializableObject.GetType());
            using (MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream())
            {
                serializer.Serialize(stream, serializableObject);
                stream.Position = 0;
                xmlDocument.Load(stream);
                xmlDocument.Save(fileName);
            }
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            //Log exception here
        }
    }


    /// <summary>
    /// Deserializes an xml file into an object list
    /// </summary>
    /// <typeparam name="T"></typeparam>
    /// <param name="fileName"></param>
    /// <returns></returns>
    public T DeSerializeObject<T>(string fileName)
    {
        if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(fileName)) { return default(T); }

        T objectOut = default(T);

        try
        {
            XmlDocument xmlDocument = new XmlDocument();
            xmlDocument.Load(fileName);
            string xmlString = xmlDocument.OuterXml;

            using (StringReader read = new StringReader(xmlString))
            {
                Type outType = typeof(T);

                XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(outType);
                using (XmlReader reader = new XmlTextReader(read))
                {
                    objectOut = (T)serializer.Deserialize(reader);
                }
            }
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            //Log exception here
        }

        return objectOut;
    }