Serialization

BinaryFormatter

Class that serializes (converts) an object-state into binary format and stores in binary file.

Serialization is a process of converting an object from one format to another format.
It can also read existing object-state from the binary file.
Full path: System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary.BinaryFormatter

BinaryFormatter referenceVariable = new BinaryFormatter();

Example:

[Serializable]
public class Country {
    public short CountryID { get; set; }
    public string CountryName { get; set; }
    public long Population { get; set; }
    public string Region { get; set; }
}

// create object
Country country = new Country()
{
    CountryID = 1,
    CountryName = "Russia",
    Population = 145934000,
    Region = "Eastern Europe"
};

// create FileStream
string filePath = @"c:\practice\russia.txt";
FileStream fileStream = new FileStream(filePath, FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write);

// create BinaryFormatter
BinaryFormatter binaryFormatter = new BinaryFormatter();
binaryFormatter.Serialize(fileStream, country);
fileStream.Close();

// Code for deserialization
FileStream fileStream2 = new FileStream(filePath, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read);
Country country_from_file = (Country)binaryFormatter.Deserialize(fileStream2);

Methods:

Method	Description
`Serialize(...)`	Converts the object-state into the binary file, using the specified FileStream (with Write access).
`Deserialize(...)`	Reads the existing object-state from the binary file, using the specified FileStream (with Read access).

JsonSerializer

A flexible static class for serializing objects and deserializing jsons

Methods:

Serialize(...):

string jsonString = JsonSerializer.Serialize(weatherForecast);

string fileName = "WeatherForecast.json";
string jsonString = JsonSerializer.Serialize(weatherForecast);
File.WriteAllText(fileName, jsonString);

string fileName = "WeatherForecast.json";
using FileStream createStream = File.Create(fileName);
await JsonSerializer.SerializeAsync(createStream, weatherForecast);
await createStream.DisposeAsync();

var options = new JsonSerializerOptions { WriteIndented = true };
string jsonString = JsonSerializer.Serialize(weatherForecast, options);

Deserialize(...):

WeatherForecast? weatherForecast = JsonSerializer.Deserialize<WeatherForecast>(jsonString);

string fileName = "WeatherForecast.json";
using FileStream openStream = File.OpenRead(fileName);
WeatherForecast? weatherForecast = await JsonSerializer.DeserializeAsync<WeatherForecast>(openStream);

JavaScriptSerializer (JSON for .NET Framework)

Class that serializes (converts) an object-state into JSON format.

It can also convert JSON data into an object of any class.
Full path: System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer

Example:

// create object of JavaScriptSerializer
JavaScriptSerializer javaScriptSerializer = new JavaScriptSerializer();
string filePath = @"c:\practice\customer.txt";
StreamWriter streamWriter = new StreamWriter(filePath);

// Serialize
string json = javaScriptSerializer.Serialize(customer);
streamWriter.WriteLine(json);
streamWriter.Close();
Console.WriteLine("Serialized");

// Deserialize
StreamReader streamReader = new StreamReader(filePath);
Customer customer_from_file = javaScriptSerializer.Deserialize(streamReader.ReadToEnd(), typeof(Customer)) as Customer;

Methods:

Task	Code Example
`Serialize(...)`	`javaScriptSerializer.Serialize( YourObject )`
`Deserialize(...)`	`javaScriptSerializer.Deserialize( string jsonData, typeof(ClassName) )`

XmlSerializer

Class that serializes (converts) an object-state into XML format and stores in XML file.

It can also read existing object-state from the XML file.
Full path: System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer

XmlSerializer referenceVariable = new XmlSerializer( typeof(ClassName) );

Methods:

Method	Description
`Serialize(...)`	Converts the object-state into the XML file, using the specified FileStream (with Write access).
`Deserialize(...)`	Reads the existing object-state from the XML file, using the specified FileStream (with Read access).