How to: Serialize an Object 

To serialize an object, first create the object that is to be serialized and set its public properties and fields. To do this, you must determine the transport format in which the XML stream is to be stored, either as a stream or as a file. For example, if the XML stream must be saved in a permanent form, create a FileStream object.

Note
For more examples of XML serialization, see Examples of XML Serialization.

To serialize an object

1. Create the object and set its public fields and properties.

2. Construct a XmlSerializer using the type of the object. For more information, see the XmlSerializer class constructors.

3. Call the Serialize method to generate either an XML stream or a file representation of the object's public properties and fields. The following example creates a file.

   Dim myObject As MySerializableClass = New MySerializableClass()
   ' Insert code to set properties and fields of the object.
   Dim mySerializer As XmlSerializer = New XmlSerializer(GetType(MySerializableClass))
   ' To write to a file, create a StreamWriter object.
   Dim myWriter As StreamWriter = New StreamWriter("myFileName.xml")
   mySerializer.Serialize(myWriter, myObject)
   myWriter.Close()
   

   MySerializableClass myObject = new MySerializableClass();
   // Insert code to set properties and fields of the object.
   XmlSerializer mySerializer = new 
   XmlSerializer(typeof(MySerializableClass));
   // To write to a file, create a StreamWriter object.
   StreamWriter myWriter = new StreamWriter("myFileName.xml");
   mySerializer.Serialize(myWriter, myObject);
   myWriter.Close();
   

See Also

Tasks

How to: Deserialize an Object

Concepts

Introducing XML Serialization