Question

When serializing, I would like to serialize an object only once, then any references to that object should be serialized as a reference to the object. This is because, when I later deserialize the objects, I would like to maintain those references. To illustrate my goal, the code below should output ‘After Serialization: true’.

class Program {     static void Main(string[] args)     {         MyObject obj = new MyObject() { Name = 'obj' };         MyObject[] myObjs = new MyObject[]         {             obj, obj         };          Console.WriteLine('Object Refs Equal?');         Console.WriteLine(string.Format('Before Serialization: {0}',             object.ReferenceEquals(myObjs[0], myObjs[1])));          XmlSerializer toXml = new XmlSerializer(typeof(MyObject[]));         using (FileStream toFile = File.Create(@'C:\foo.xml'))         {             toXml.Serialize(toFile, myObjs);         }          XmlSerializer fromXml = new XmlSerializer(typeof(MyObject[]));         using (FileStream fromFile = File.OpenRead(@'C:\foo.xml'))         {             MyObject[] deserialized = (MyObject[])fromXml.Deserialize(fromFile);              Console.WriteLine(string.Format('After Serialization: {0}',             object.ReferenceEquals(deserialized[0], deserialized[1])));         }          Console.ReadLine();     } }  [Serializable] public class MyObject {     public string Name { get; set; } } 

Answer 1

If you’re using .NET 3 or later, you should use the DataContractSerializer and set PreserveObjectReferences to true.