ADO.NET Cookbook

5.4. Serializing Data

Problem

You need to serialize the contents of a DataSet so that you can store the data on a disk or transfer it across a network.

Solution

You can serialize a DataSet into XML, binary, or SOAP formats and save the serialized DataSet to a stream (such as a file or network stream).

The sample code creates a DataSet containing the Orders and Order Details tables from Northwind and a relation between the two tables. A file stream is created and the DataSet is serialized to the stream using a specified format.

The C# code is shown in Example 5-4.

Example 5-4. File: SerializeForm.cs

// Namespaces, variables, and constants using System; using System.Configuration; using System.Windows.Forms; using System.IO; using System.Data; using System.Data.SqlClient; using System.Runtime.Serialization; using System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary; using System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap; using System.Xml.Serialization; // Table name constants private const String ORDERS_TABLE = "Orders"; private const String ORDERDETAILS_TABLE = "OrderDetails"; // Relation name constants private const String ORDERS_ORDERDETAILS_RELATION = "Orders_OrderDetails_Relation"; // Field name constants private const String ORDERID_FIELD = "OrderID"; private SaveFileDialog sfd; // . . . private void goButton_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e) { DataSet ds = new DataSet( ); SqlDataAdapter da; // Fill the Order table and add it to the DataSet. da = new SqlDataAdapter("SELECT * FROM Orders", ...