How to save restore serializable object to from file

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

User · Answer

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 lt MyObject gt  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

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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 lt T gt  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 lt T gt  reader

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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       lt summary gt      Writes the given object instance to a binary file       lt para gt Object type  and all child types  must be decorated with the  Serializable  attribute  lt  para gt       lt para gt To prevent a variable from being serialized  decorate it with the  NonSerialized  attribute  cannot be applied to properties  lt  para gt       lt  summary gt       lt typeparam name  T  gt The type of object being written to the binary file  lt  typeparam gt       lt param name  filePath  gt The file path to write the object instance to  lt  param gt       lt param name  objectToWrite  gt The object instance to write to the binary file  lt  param gt       lt param name  append  gt If false the file will be overwritten if it already exists  If true the contents will be appended to the file  lt  param gt  public static void WriteToBinaryFile lt T gt  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                 lt summary gt      Reads an object instance from a binary file       lt  summary gt       lt typeparam name  T  gt The type of object to read from the binary file  lt  typeparam gt       lt param name  filePath  gt The file path to read the object instance from  lt  param gt       lt returns gt Returns a new instance of the object read from the binary file  lt  returns gt  public static T ReadFromBinaryFile lt T gt  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        lt summary gt      Writes the given object instance to an XML file       lt para gt Only Public properties and variables will be written to the file  These can be any type though  even other classes  lt  para gt       lt para gt If there are public properties variables that you do not want written to the file  decorate them with the  XmlIgnore  attribute  lt  para gt       lt para gt Object type must have a parameterless constructor  lt  para gt       lt  summary gt       lt typeparam name  T  gt The type of object being written to the file  lt  typeparam gt       lt param name  filePath  gt The file path to write the object instance to  lt  param gt       lt param name  objectToWrite  gt The object instance to write to the file  lt  param gt       lt param name  append  gt If false the file will be overwritten if it already exists  If true the contents will be appended to the file  lt  param gt  public static void WriteToXmlFile lt T gt  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                  lt summary gt      Reads an object instance from an XML file       lt para gt Object type must have a parameterless constructor  lt  para gt       lt  summary gt       lt typeparam name  T  gt The type of object to read from the file  lt  typeparam gt       lt param name  filePath  gt The file path to read the object instance from  lt  param gt       lt returns gt Returns a new instance of the object read from the XML file  lt  returns gt  public static T ReadFromXmlFile lt T gt  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        lt summary gt      Writes the given object instance to a Json file       lt para gt Object type must have a parameterless constructor  lt  para gt       lt para gt Only Public properties and variables will be written to the file  These can be any type though  even other classes  lt  para gt       lt para gt If there are public properties variables that you do not want written to the file  decorate them with the  JsonIgnore  attribute  lt  para gt       lt  summary gt       lt typeparam name  T  gt The type of object being written to the file  lt  typeparam gt       lt param name  filePath  gt The file path to write the object instance to  lt  param gt       lt param name  objectToWrite  gt The object instance to write to the file  lt  param gt       lt param name  append  gt If false the file will be overwritten if it already exists  If true the contents will be appended to the file  lt  param gt  public static void WriteToJsonFile lt T gt  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                  lt summary gt      Reads an object instance from an Json file       lt para gt Object type must have a parameterless constructor  lt  para gt       lt  summary gt       lt typeparam name  T  gt The type of object to read from the file  lt  typeparam gt       lt param name  filePath  gt The file path to read the object instance from  lt  param gt       lt returns gt Returns a new instance of the object read from the Json file  lt  returns gt  public static T ReadFromJsonFile lt T gt  string filePath  where T   new         TextReader reader   null      try               reader   new StreamReader filePath           var fileContents   reader ReadToEnd            return JsonConvert DeserializeObject lt T gt  fileContents             finally               if  reader    null              reader Close              Example     Write the contents of the variable someClass to a file  WriteToBinaryFile lt SomeClass gt   C  someClass txt   object1       Read the file contents back into a variable  SomeClass object1  ReadFromBinaryFile lt SomeClass gt   C  someClass txt

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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 lt ObjType gt  File ReadAllText filePath

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You can use the following            lt summary gt          Serializes an object           lt  summary gt           lt typeparam name  T  gt  lt  typeparam gt           lt param name  serializableObject  gt  lt  param gt           lt param name  fileName  gt  lt  param gt      public void SerializeObject lt T gt  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                            lt summary gt          Deserializes an xml file into an object list          lt  summary gt           lt typeparam name  T  gt  lt  typeparam gt           lt param name  fileName  gt  lt  param gt           lt returns gt  lt  returns gt      public T DeSerializeObject lt T gt  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

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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

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

1. Restore Object From File

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

Solution-2: Deserialize JSON directly from a file

2. Save Object To File

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

Solution-2: Serialize JSON directly to a file

3. Extra

Examples related to c#

Examples related to serialization

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