Chapter 23. Serialization

Serialization is the process of taking a C# object or value and creating a stream of bytes or an XML document. Deserialization is the opposite process: taking the previously generate bytes or XML and using them to recreate the serialized object or value.

Serialization can create long-lived objects, which are serialized and stored, typically to disk, when a program exits and are then retrieved from storage and deserialized the next time they are required. The other main use for serialization is to transmit copies of objects across a network to a remote application. You unknowingly took advantage of this feature when you looked at the Windows Communication Foundation in Chapter 21.

The .NET Framework contains four separate ...

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