Programming C# 3.0, 5th Edition

Serialization

When an object is streamed to disk, its various member data must be serialized—that is, written out to the stream as a series of bytes. The object will also be serialized when stored in a database or when marshaled across a context, app domain, process, or machine boundary.

The CLR provides support for serializing an object graph—an object and all the member data of that object. By default, types aren't serializable. To be able to serialize an object, you must explicitly mark it with the [Serializable] attribute.

The CLR will do the work of serializing your object for you. Because the CLR knows how to serialize all the primitive types, if your object consists of nothing but primitive types (all your member data consists of integers, longs, strings, etc.), you're all set. If your object consists of other user-defined types (classes), you must ensure that these types are also serializable. The CLR will try to serialize each object contained by your object (and all their contained objects as well), but these objects themselves must be either primitive types or serializable, or else they will not be serialized.

Tip

When an object is marshaled, either by value or by reference, it must be serialized. The difference is only whether a copy is made or a proxy is provided to the client. Objects marked with the [Serializable] attribute are marshaled by value; those that derive from MarshalByRefObject are marshaled by reference, but both are serialized.

Using a Formatter

When data is ...