Question

I have such dictionary Dictionary<string, object>, dictionary holds string keys and objects as values. I need to save and later load such dictionary. What would be best method to do that?

Answer 1

You can use this serializable Dictionary<TKey, TVal>(tested):

http://www.dacris.com/blog/2010/07/31/c-serializable-dictionary-a-working-example/

Dictionary<String, Object> otherDictionary = new Dictionary<String, Object>();
otherDictionary.Add("Foo", new List<String>() { "1st Foo","2nd Foo","3rd Foo" });
var dict = new SerializableDictionary<String, Object>(otherDictionary);

write it to a file:

using (FileStream fileStream = new FileStream("test.binary", FileMode.Create))
{
    IFormatter bf = new System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary.BinaryFormatter();
    bf.Serialize(fileStream, dict);
}

read it from a file:

using (FileStream fileStream = new FileStream("test.binary", FileMode.Open))
{
    IFormatter bf = new System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary.BinaryFormatter();
    dict = (SerializableDictionary<String, Object>)bf.Deserialize(fileStream);
}

Note: Of course you don’t need to create a second Dictionary. You can use the SerializableDictionary at the first place. That should just demonstrate how to use it with an already existing Dictionary.