What are Serialization and Deserialization? What are the types of serialization?

Serialization and deserialization are processes used in software development to convert objects into a format that can be easily stored, transmitted, or persisted, and then restored back to their original form.

• Serialization is the process of converting an object into a format that can be stored, transmitted, or reconstructed later.
• Deserialization is the process of converting serialized data, such as binary/ XML/ json data, back into an object.
• When to use serialization?? It is mostly used in Web API to convert class objects into JSON string.

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

// A sample class to serialize and deserialize
[Serializable]
public class Person
{
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public int Age { get; set; }
}

public class Program
{
    public static void Main()
    {
        // Create an instance of the Person class
        Person person = new Person
        {
            Name = "John Smith",
            Age = 30
        };

        // Serialize the object to a file
        string filePath = "person.dat";
        SerializeObject(person, filePath);
        Console.WriteLine("Object serialized successfully.");

        // Deserialize the object from the file
        Person deserializedPerson = DeserializeObject(filePath);
        Console.WriteLine($"Deserialized object: Name = {deserializedPerson.Name}, Age = {deserializedPerson.Age}");
    }

    // Serialize an object to a file
    public static void SerializeObject(object obj, string filePath)
    {
        using (FileStream fileStream = new FileStream(filePath, FileMode.Create))
        {
            BinaryFormatter binaryFormatter = new BinaryFormatter();
            binaryFormatter.Serialize(fileStream, obj);
        }
    }

    // Deserialize an object from a file
    public static T DeserializeObject<T>(string filePath)
    {
        using (FileStream fileStream = new FileStream(filePath, FileMode.Open))
        {
            BinaryFormatter binaryFormatter = new BinaryFormatter();
            return (T)binaryFormatter.Deserialize(fileStream);
        }
    }
}

In this example, the Person class is marked with the [Serializable] attribute, indicating that it can be serialized. The Main method creates an instance of the Person class, serializes it to a file using the SerializeObject method, and then deserializes it back using the DeserializeObject method.

The SerializeObject method uses a BinaryFormatter to serialize the object to a file. It takes an object and a file path as parameters and writes the serialized data to the file.

The DeserializeObject method reads the serialized data from the file using a BinaryFormatter and returns the deserialized object. The generic type parameter T is used to specify the type of the object being deserialized.

After running the program, it will output the serialized object to a file (person.dat) and then deserialize it, displaying the deserialized object's properties.

Note that binary serialization is just one type of serialization available in C#. There are different serialization techniques and libraries available for XML, JSON, SOAP, and custom serialization, depending on your specific requirements and preferences.