.NET API Reference

ISerializable Interface

Provides data for the SerializationCallback attribute and defines the interface that custom serialization procedures must implement.

Members

Name	Description
GetObjectData	When implemented in a derived class, sets the SerializationInfo with information about the serializable object.

Remarks

The ISerializable interface is used to control the serialization process for types that require custom serialization logic. This is typically necessary when the default serialization mechanism is insufficient or when you need to handle specific aspects of object state during serialization and deserialization.

Types that implement ISerializable must also have a constructor with the following signature:

protected MyClass(SerializationInfo info, StreamingContext context);

This constructor is invoked during deserialization to reconstruct the object's state from the provided SerializationInfo.

Requirements

Namespace:

System.Runtime.Serialization

Assembly:

System.Runtime.Serialization.dll

See Also

• SerializationInfo
• StreamingContext
• Formatter
• BinaryFormatter

Example

Here's a basic example demonstrating how to implement ISerializable:

using System;
using System.Runtime.Serialization;

[Serializable]
public class CustomData : ISerializable
{
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public int Value { get; set; }

    // Constructor for deserialization
    protected CustomData(SerializationInfo info, StreamingContext context)
    {
        this.Name = info.GetString("Name");
        this.Value = info.GetInt32("Value");
    }

    // Implement ISerializable.GetObjectData
    public virtual void GetObjectData(SerializationInfo info, StreamingContext context)
    {
        info.AddValue("Name", this.Name);
        info.AddValue("Value", this.Value);
    }

    // Optional: Default constructor
    public CustomData() { }

    public override string ToString()
    {
        return $"Name: {Name}, Value: {Value}";
    }
}

// Usage example (typically within a serialization context)
// BinaryFormatter formatter = new BinaryFormatter();
// using (MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream())
// {
//     CustomData originalData = new CustomData { Name = "Example", Value = 123 };
//     formatter.Serialize(stream, originalData);
//     stream.Position = 0;
//     CustomData deserializedData = (CustomData)formatter.Deserialize(stream);
//     Console.WriteLine(deserializedData.ToString());
// }