[c#] How to save/restore serializable object to/from file?

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?

You can use JsonConvert from Newtonsoft library. To serialize an object and write to a file in json format:

File.WriteAllText(filePath, JsonConvert.SerializeObject(obj));

And to deserialize it back into object:

var obj = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<ObjType>(File.ReadAllText(filePath));

**1. Convert the json string to base64string and Write or append it to binary file. 2. Read base64string from binary file and deserialize using BsonReader. **

 public static class BinaryJson
{
    public static string SerializeToBase64String(this object obj)
    {
        JsonSerializer jsonSerializer = new JsonSerializer();
        MemoryStream objBsonMemoryStream = new MemoryStream();
        using (BsonWriter bsonWriterObject = new BsonWriter(objBsonMemoryStream))
        {
            jsonSerializer.Serialize(bsonWriterObject, obj);
            return Convert.ToBase64String(objBsonMemoryStream.ToArray());
        }           
        //return Encoding.ASCII.GetString(objBsonMemoryStream.ToArray());
    }
    public static T DeserializeToObject<T>(this string base64String)
    {
        byte[] data = Convert.FromBase64String(base64String);
        MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream(data);
        using (BsonReader reader = new BsonReader(ms))
        {
            JsonSerializer serializer = new JsonSerializer();
            return serializer.Deserialize<T>(reader);
        }
    }
}

I just wrote a blog post on saving an object's data to Binary, XML, or Json. You are correct that you must decorate your classes with the [Serializable] attribute, but only if you are using Binary serialization. You may prefer to use XML or Json serialization. Here are the functions to do it in the various formats. See my blog post for more details.

Binary

/// <summary>
/// Writes the given object instance to a binary file.
/// <para>Object type (and all child types) must be decorated with the [Serializable] attribute.</para>
/// <para>To prevent a variable from being serialized, decorate it with the [NonSerialized] attribute; cannot be applied to properties.</para>
/// </summary>
/// <typeparam name="T">The type of object being written to the binary file.</typeparam>
/// <param name="filePath">The file path to write the object instance to.</param>
/// <param name="objectToWrite">The object instance to write to the binary file.</param>
/// <param name="append">If false the file will be overwritten if it already exists. If true the contents will be appended to the file.</param>
public static void WriteToBinaryFile<T>(string filePath, T objectToWrite, bool append = false)
{
    using (Stream stream = File.Open(filePath, append ? FileMode.Append : FileMode.Create))
    {
        var binaryFormatter = new System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary.BinaryFormatter();
        binaryFormatter.Serialize(stream, objectToWrite);
    }
}

/// <summary>
/// Reads an object instance from a binary file.
/// </summary>
/// <typeparam name="T">The type of object to read from the binary file.</typeparam>
/// <param name="filePath">The file path to read the object instance from.</param>
/// <returns>Returns a new instance of the object read from the binary file.</returns>
public static T ReadFromBinaryFile<T>(string filePath)
{
    using (Stream stream = File.Open(filePath, FileMode.Open))
    {
        var binaryFormatter = new System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary.BinaryFormatter();
        return (T)binaryFormatter.Deserialize(stream);
    }
}

XML

Requires the System.Xml assembly to be included in your project.

/// <summary>
/// Writes the given object instance to an XML file.
/// <para>Only Public properties and variables will be written to the file. These can be any type though, even other classes.</para>
/// <para>If there are public properties/variables that you do not want written to the file, decorate them with the [XmlIgnore] attribute.</para>
/// <para>Object type must have a parameterless constructor.</para>
/// </summary>
/// <typeparam name="T">The type of object being written to the file.</typeparam>
/// <param name="filePath">The file path to write the object instance to.</param>
/// <param name="objectToWrite">The object instance to write to the file.</param>
/// <param name="append">If false the file will be overwritten if it already exists. If true the contents will be appended to the file.</param>
public static void WriteToXmlFile<T>(string filePath, T objectToWrite, bool append = false) where T : new()
{
    TextWriter writer = null;
    try
    {
        var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));
        writer = new StreamWriter(filePath, append);
        serializer.Serialize(writer, objectToWrite);
    }
    finally
    {
        if (writer != null)
            writer.Close();
    }
}

/// <summary>
/// Reads an object instance from an XML file.
/// <para>Object type must have a parameterless constructor.</para>
/// </summary>
/// <typeparam name="T">The type of object to read from the file.</typeparam>
/// <param name="filePath">The file path to read the object instance from.</param>
/// <returns>Returns a new instance of the object read from the XML file.</returns>
public static T ReadFromXmlFile<T>(string filePath) where T : new()
{
    TextReader reader = null;
    try
    {
        var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));
        reader = new StreamReader(filePath);
        return (T)serializer.Deserialize(reader);
    }
    finally
    {
        if (reader != null)
            reader.Close();
    }
}

Json

You must include a reference to Newtonsoft.Json assembly, which can be obtained from the Json.NET NuGet Package.

/// <summary>
/// Writes the given object instance to a Json file.
/// <para>Object type must have a parameterless constructor.</para>
/// <para>Only Public properties and variables will be written to the file. These can be any type though, even other classes.</para>
/// <para>If there are public properties/variables that you do not want written to the file, decorate them with the [JsonIgnore] attribute.</para>
/// </summary>
/// <typeparam name="T">The type of object being written to the file.</typeparam>
/// <param name="filePath">The file path to write the object instance to.</param>
/// <param name="objectToWrite">The object instance to write to the file.</param>
/// <param name="append">If false the file will be overwritten if it already exists. If true the contents will be appended to the file.</param>
public static void WriteToJsonFile<T>(string filePath, T objectToWrite, bool append = false) where T : new()
{
    TextWriter writer = null;
    try
    {
        var contentsToWriteToFile = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(objectToWrite);
        writer = new StreamWriter(filePath, append);
        writer.Write(contentsToWriteToFile);
    }
    finally
    {
        if (writer != null)
            writer.Close();
    }
}

/// <summary>
/// Reads an object instance from an Json file.
/// <para>Object type must have a parameterless constructor.</para>
/// </summary>
/// <typeparam name="T">The type of object to read from the file.</typeparam>
/// <param name="filePath">The file path to read the object instance from.</param>
/// <returns>Returns a new instance of the object read from the Json file.</returns>
public static T ReadFromJsonFile<T>(string filePath) where T : new()
{
    TextReader reader = null;
    try
    {
        reader = new StreamReader(filePath);
        var fileContents = reader.ReadToEnd();
        return JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<T>(fileContents);
    }
    finally
    {
        if (reader != null)
            reader.Close();
    }
}

Example

// Write the contents of the variable someClass to a file.
WriteToBinaryFile<SomeClass>("C:\someClass.txt", object1);

// Read the file contents back into a variable.
SomeClass object1= ReadFromBinaryFile<SomeClass>("C:\someClass.txt");

You'll need to serialize to something: that is, pick binary, or xml (for default serializers) or write custom serialization code to serialize to some other text form.

Once you've picked that, your serialization will (normally) call a Stream that is writing to some kind of file.

So, with your code, if I were using XML Serialization:

var path = @"C:\Test\myserializationtest.xml";
using(FileStream fs = new FileStream(path, FileMode.Create))
{
    XmlSerializer xSer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(SomeClass));

    xSer.Serialize(fs, serializableObject);
}

Then, to deserialize:

using(FileStream fs = new FileStream(path, FileMode.Open)) //double check that...
{
    XmlSerializer _xSer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(SomeClass));

    var myObject = _xSer.Deserialize(fs);
}

NOTE: This code hasn't been compiled, let alone run- there may be some errors. Also, this assumes completely out-of-the-box serialization/deserialization. If you need custom behavior, you'll need to do additional work.

1. Restore Object From File

From Here you can deserialize an object from file in two way.

Solution-1: Read file into a string and deserialize JSON to a type

string json = File.ReadAllText(@"c:\myObj.json");
MyObject myObj = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<MyObject>(json);

Solution-2: Deserialize JSON directly from a file

using (StreamReader file = File.OpenText(@"c:\myObj.json"))
{
    JsonSerializer serializer = new JsonSerializer();
    MyObject myObj2 = (MyObject)serializer.Deserialize(file, typeof(MyObject));
}

2. Save Object To File

from here you can serialize an object to file in two way.

Solution-1: Serialize JSON to a string and then write string to a file

string json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(myObj);
File.WriteAllText(@"c:\myObj.json", json);

Solution-2: Serialize JSON directly to a file

using (StreamWriter file = File.CreateText(@"c:\myObj.json"))
{
    JsonSerializer serializer = new JsonSerializer();
    serializer.Serialize(file, myObj);
}

3. Extra

You can download Newtonsoft.Json from NuGet by following command

Install-Package Newtonsoft.Json