Serialization - What's It Going to be then, Eh?

Tue 15 Aug 2006

Serialization
I was playing with serializing a class to a db. There were several frameworks that I found to implement this but I wanted to see what was involved. This is what I came up with after a little quick searching in msdn. Not a terrible solution. I need to look at the resources that MemoryStream eats up and when it gives them back. The app won't use this heavily as it really only stores this data once. The test app using System; using System.IO; using System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary; using System.Runtime.Serialization; namespace Serialize{ public class myApp{ [STAThread] static void Main(string[] args){ myClass mc = new myClass(); mc.myInt = 2; mc.myStr = "Ari"; string str = ""; //Filestream to hold the data object MemoryStream mem = new MemoryStream(); //BinaryFormatter that will push the data to the stream BinaryFormatter bf = new BinaryFormatter(); try { bf.Serialize(mem,mc); str = Convert.ToBase64String(mem.ToArray()); } catch(SerializationException e) { Console.WriteLine("Failed to serialize. Reason: " + e.Message); } finally { mem.Close(); } Console.WriteLine("MyClass serialized"); myClass mc2 = new myClass(); //new filstream to deserialize mem = new MemoryStream(Convert.FromBase64String(str)); try{ BinaryFormatter bf2 = new BinaryFormatter(); //deserialize mc2 = (myClass) bf2.Deserialize(mem); } catch(SerializationException e) { Console.WriteLine("Failed to deserialize. Reason: " + e.Message); throw; } finally { mem.Close(); } mc.myStr = "Boo"; Console.WriteLine("Class de-serialized"); Console.WriteLine(mc2.ToString()); Console.WriteLine("Because I need proof " + mc.ToString()); } } } And the class that is being serialized using System; using System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary; using System.Runtime.Serialization; using System.IO; namespace Serialize{ [Serializable] public class myClass { private int p_myint = 0; private string p_mystr = ""; public int myInt{ get{ return p_myint; } set { p_myint = value; } } public string myStr{ get { return p_mystr; } set { p_mystr = value; } } public override string ToString() { return p_mystr + " says: " + p_myint.ToString(); } } } and the output h:\Development\Test\Serialize>Serialize.exe Serialize.exe MyClass serialized Class de-serialized Ari says: 2 Because I need proof Boo says: 2 This post is mostly for my own purpose and as a test of 'blog-buffer-html and 'blog-region-html in the now world famous blog-mode™ mentioned earlier in this very blog!
comment (0) \| Ari Turetzky \| permanent link

Serialization

I was playing with serializing a class to a db. There were several frameworks that I found to implement this but I wanted to see what was involved. This is what I came up with after a little quick searching in msdn. Not a terrible solution. I need to look at the resources that MemoryStream eats up and when it gives them back. The app won't use this heavily as it really only stores this data once.

The test app

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary;
using System.Runtime.Serialization;

namespace Serialize{
  public class myApp{
    [STAThread]
      static void Main(string[] args){
      myClass mc = new myClass();
      mc.myInt = 2;
      mc.myStr = "Ari";
      string str = "";
      
      //Filestream to hold the data object
      MemoryStream mem = new MemoryStream();
      //BinaryFormatter that will push the data to the stream
      BinaryFormatter bf = new BinaryFormatter();
      try
        {
          bf.Serialize(mem,mc);
          str = Convert.ToBase64String(mem.ToArray());
        }
      catch(SerializationException e)
        {
          Console.WriteLine("Failed to serialize. Reason: " + e.Message);
        }
      finally
        {
          mem.Close();
        }
      Console.WriteLine("MyClass serialized");
      myClass mc2 = new myClass();

      //new filstream to deserialize
      mem = new MemoryStream(Convert.FromBase64String(str));
      try{
        BinaryFormatter bf2 = new BinaryFormatter();
        //deserialize
        mc2 = (myClass) bf2.Deserialize(mem);
      }
      catch(SerializationException e)
        {
          Console.WriteLine("Failed to deserialize. Reason: " + e.Message);
          throw;
        }
      finally
        {
          mem.Close();
        }
      mc.myStr = "Boo";
      Console.WriteLine("Class de-serialized");
      Console.WriteLine(mc2.ToString());
      Console.WriteLine("Because I need proof " + mc.ToString());
    }
  }
}

And the class that is being serialized

    using System;
using System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary;
using System.Runtime.Serialization;
using System.IO;

namespace Serialize{
  [Serializable]
  public class myClass 
  {
    private int p_myint = 0;
    private string p_mystr = "";
    

    public int myInt{
      get{
        return p_myint;
      }
      set
        {
          p_myint = value;
        }
    }
    public string myStr{
      get
        {
          return p_mystr;
        }
      set
        {
          p_mystr = value;
        }
    }
    public override string ToString()
    {
      return p_mystr + " says: " + p_myint.ToString();
    }
  }
}

and the output

h:\Development\Test\Serialize>Serialize.exe 
Serialize.exe 
MyClass serialized
Class de-serialized
Ari says: 2
Because I need proof Boo says: 2

This post is mostly for my own purpose and as a test of 'blog-buffer-html and 'blog-region-html in the now world famous blog-mode™ mentioned earlier in this very blog!

comment (0) | Ari Turetzky | permanent link