.Net → C# – Generic Serialization Methods
July 29th, 2011 by Ryan Alford
Short blog post today. These are a couple of generic serialize and deserialize methods that can be easily used when needing to serialize and deserialize classes. The methods work with any .Net type. That includes built-in .Net types and custom classes that you might create yourself.
These methods will only serialize PUBLIC properties of a class. Also, the XML will be human-readable instead of one long line of text.
Serialize Method
/// <summary>
/// Serializes the data in the object to the designated file path
/// </summary>
/// <typeparam name="T">Type of Object to serialize</typeparam>
/// <param name="dataToSerialize">Object to serialize</param>
/// <param name="filePath">FilePath for the XML file</param>
public static void Serialize<T>(T dataToSerialize, string filePath)
{
try
{
using (Stream stream = File.Open(filePath, FileMode.Create, FileAccess.ReadWrite))
{
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));
XmlTextWriter writer = new XmlTextWriter(stream, Encoding.Default);
writer.Formatting = Formatting.Indented;
serializer.Serialize(writer, dataToSerialize);
writer.Close();
}
}
catch
{
throw;
}
}
Deserialize Method
/// <summary>
/// Deserializes the data in the XML file into an object
/// </summary>
/// <typeparam name="T">Type of object to deserialize</typeparam>
/// <param name="filePath">FilePath to XML file</param>
/// <returns>Object containing deserialized data</returns>
public static T Deserialize<T>(string filePath)
{
try
{
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));
T serializedData;
using (Stream stream = File.Open(filePath, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read))
{
serializedData = (T)serializer.Deserialize(stream);
}
return serializedData;
}
catch
{
throw;
}
}
Here is some sample code to show the methods in action.
Person p = new Person() { Name = "John Doe", Age = 42 };
XmlHelper.Serialize<Person>(p, @"D:\text.xml");
Person p2 = new Person();
p2 = XmlHelper.Deserialize<Person>(@"D:\text.xml");
Console.WriteLine("Name: {0}", p2.Name);
Console.WriteLine("Age: {0}", p2.Age);
Console.Read();
